Survivor
by Clement Rage
Summary: ffvii through the eyes of a shinra soldier. Rated m for strong language and the honey bee inn. Chapter 27 up. DOC SPOILERS! Also DOC SPOILERS in chap 29
1. Chapter 1

_I own nothing._

**Survivor**

Evan opened his eyes. The train would stop here soon, and It wouldn't do to be caught dozing during his watch. Standing to attention, in case there was a welcoming committee from the reactor, he attempted to look alert. This was drudge duty, standing in a station for three hours helping to unload cargo. The train skidded to a stop...

He blinked. The bitch had kicked him in the spine, and he'd almost cracked his skull off the train. Ignoring the spasms of agony the movement gave him, he turned his head slightly just as a big guy with a gun melded into his arm ran past. Then a smaller, tough looking guy with spiked blond hair did an elaborate and unnecessary half somersault off the top of the train. The big guy said something to Spikehead

_how much hair gel does he use_

and ran out of the station. Spikehead headed towards Evan, who felt a hand in his breast pocket removing his standard issue potion. Then Spikehead headed towards the exit. Before he got there, Eddie and Sasha, the station's MP's, charged him.

_Run, you idiots. Move!_

Spikehead drew a six foot sword. Sasha opened fire, but Spikehead took the worst of it on his shoulder guard and charged her, cutting deep. Eddie charged him back, causing him to barely grunt. Sasha was still on her feet, if, barely, and squeezed off another round, which missed entirely, but Spikehead was stunned that she was still alive and faltered. He sheathed his sword. For a fraction of a second Evan thought he was about to surrender, but then he saw the materia glow. A bolt of lightning blasted Eddie, who was burnt to red ash. Spikehead charged Sasha again and she went down. Spikehead ran outside.

The result was never in doubt. MPs were trained to keep civilians in line, not combat. Any fewer than five against a trained opponent was a joke. He wondered who had trained Spikehead.

His mind was wandering. A bad sign. He slowly pushed himself away from the train until he lay on his back, despite the agony. Removing his helmet, he took out the elixir he kept there. It had cost him three weeks wages, but it was worth it now. His hand slipped, and the elixir hit the ground and broke. One half landed intact. He lapped up the remains of the contents before pushing his panic button-the one that activated the scorpion guard and told the non-combat employees to flee-before unconsciousness claimed him.


	2. Aftermath

_Sephiroth's quote is stolen from a film called Buffalo Soldiers. I don't own it or FF7, or anything else that might be in this fic._

**Aftermath**

"Attention!"

"Sir!"

Evan sighed inwardly. A scavenging team had found him after the reactor blew, and he'd woken up in the nap room at Shinra HQ. He was being questioned by all Shinra department heads, and the President, without even a meal first. It was proving difficult to stand straight, especially while being drowned with apparently meaningless questions. Happily, the interrogation had ceased for the moment, and the staff were watching events through his helmet cam. Big guy ran off the train...

"Freeze it."

The tech hesitated, but complied. The request had come from Alexander, Sephiroth's successor as the highest ranking officer in SOLDIER. After several heated clashes between Sephiroth and the President upon SOLDIER's creation, it was agreed to grant SOLDIER semi-autonomy. The SOLDIER office was located outside Shinra HQ, and did not have to participate in general meetings, except on the direct request of the Prez, provided they fulfilled certain duties, such as guarding the Junon airport, and Shinra general staff could request SOLDIER's aid if they wished. Alexander had continued this arrangement, and so no one was quite sure who outranked who. But this time the tech complied, and Spikehead was frozen in the act of leaping off the train. Revealing his intense blue Mako eyes.

Evan was the only one not surprised. Which irritated him immensely. Why should they doubt his word? Why would he lie?

"A former SOLDIER? How? They've all been carefully monitored since... the Nibelheim incident. And he's too young to have joined before then."

"Play the rest", commanded the President.

The video played on. Eddie was fried, and Sasha was cut down. And Evan noticed something he hadn't before. After he beat them, the fucking bastard did a fucking victory dance! A fucking victory dance! Alexander was speaking-he jerked himself back to the present.

"Those moves aren't SOLDIER's. They seem to be MP style moves adapted for the sword. The victory dance is an MP trained one as well. I've never heard of anyone in SOLDIER who fought like that."

"Plenty of MPs have gone missing over the years. Maybe one survived falling into a Mako bath and took up the first weapon he could find." This from Reeve.

"It's possible. It's more likely that-have I said something funny, Hojo?"

Hojo had begun laughing quietly.

"Oh, no, just an odd thought that occurred to me. Please continue."

"Is Evan authorized to hear this?" Tseng cut in suddenly.

"No."

"Evan, you are dismissed."

"Yessir."

Wondering how they knew his name, then realizing it was on his helmet cam, Evan headed back to the Nap room, pausing at his locker to collect his uneaten lunch from earlier in the day.

The staff he passed were noticeably more alert than normal, especially the soldiers. It was unlikely even AVALANCHEthe group that had claimed responsibility for the bomb were stupid enough to attack the HQ, but who could tell? It was odd, but the same staff that looked more alert were also looking noticeably happier. As Sephiroth had once famously said 'War is hell, but peace, is fucking boring'. Everyone was happier with a break from the routine, even such a disastrous one.

Sephiroth had been a huge loss, Evan reflected, psychopathic tendencies or not. Enough charisma to convince anyone to do anything, _without using force. _In a story that had passed into company legend, he'd once convinced a young recruit to paste an 'I'm with stupid' sign to Heidegger's back before he and Scarlet went on an extended inspection of Midgar's eight reactors. The sign was not discovered until the end of the day. Reeve had been highly amused, and had promoted the recruit, a boy named Zack, to SOLDIER first class, where it would be too risky for Scarlet to try to get revenge, as people would investigate if a SOLDIER went missing, whereas they might pass over a disappeared MP. Hence SOLDIER had gained a recruit that most of Shinra's soldiers could beat. Until he disappeared.

Settling in to the sleeping bag, Evan vaguely wondered if he should have pointed this out to the staff. No, they surely would figure it out. Scarlet, at least, would not have forgotten.

_The little story about Zack is just a random thing, explaining exactly why he was so weak in the flashback in Kalm. Sorry, this one's fast paced too. _


	3. Chapter 3

Evan woke up to find somebody kicking him in the ribs. He almost pulled his gun on them, but happily he opened his eyes first and surreptitiously holstered it once he saw who it was. Shooting Scarlet would not be good for his health. He sat up.

"...Could you stop that? I'm awake." He'd be bruised for days.

Scarlet stepped aside. President Shinra was standing in the doorway. Evan stood up and saluted, fighting a yawn.

_God, I'm stiff. Why the hell did I go to sleep in my armour?_

"Could you round up a squad of reliable men?"

"Reliable to do what? Keep their mouths shut, follow orders, stay alive?"

"All of the above. I need them for a sting operation against AVALANCHE."

"Why me? There are people more qualified." Normally Evan wouldn't dream of saying things like this, but he wasn't fully awake yet. Mercifully, the President let it pass.

"Because if they've agents in the company, I don't want it to be seen that anything unusual is happening. You happen to be here off duty. Clear?"

"Clear."

Heading down to the barracks, Evan picked up five soldiers he knew who weren't doing anything at the moment. It took him a while to convince them to follow him-he was still in his Grunt Armour, while they were in their Mighty Guard gear. After that, he headed up to the Prez' office, where the helicopter took them to reactor five. Evan picked up a pretty good idea of what was going on through listening to the conversation between the Prez and Scarlet, who was driving the helicopter.

Apparently, AVALANCHE had attempted to use a fake I.D labeled 'President Shinra'. They might have got away with it too, if not for the fact that the real Prez happened to be inspecting the scanner the time. The train had been locked down, but AVALANCHE had escaped. It was expected they'd continue with their mission, thinking the Shinra would assume they'd been mistaken. The only tangible target from the spot they'd jumped from was reactor five, and the SOLDIER troops patrolling the place had been stood down so the Prez could spring whatever trap he had in mind.

The helicopter dropped the soldiers at the reactor entrance, and they headed across the bridge to where the escape was most likely to be. After a while, a bored soldier fished a deck of cards from his pocket, and Evan had lost most of the change in his pocket by the time AVALANCHE came into view. Spikehead and big guy were there, along with a girl Evan unconsciously labeled Spiky's Bitch-SB for short.

Evan and his soldiers broke cover. Big Guy, with pure shock on his face, said "Shinra soldiers...What the hell is going on?"

_How come he's surprised? Occasionally, Shinra soldiers have been known to have duty in Shinra reactors._

"...a trap..." This from Spikehead.

_No shit, genius_

Then the Prez made his dramatic entrance, and Evan zoned out. There wouldn't be much worth hearing.

Eventually, he was jarred awake by the entrance of a large robot. He recognized it. Airbuster. One of the soldiers beside him whispered "Airbuster? In a reactor? What the fuck is he thinking?"

Airbuster was one of the most controversial machines in Shinra history. Designed for Fort Condor, its armour was criminally weak and it had a tendency to explode at the drop of a hat. Officially branded a reject, only five had ever been made, one of which was destroyed during testing. Its primary weapon was a Big Bomber Shell. Not very damaging in itself, the shell was designed to amplify shockwaves from the blast and do huge damage. However, a Shinra brand walkway was laden with shock absorbers, so only the damage from the actual shell would be effective.

The AVALANCHE members were attacking it from either side, and Big Bomber had run out of ammo. The machines secondary weapons didn't even slow them. Spikehead loomed briefly above the machine, delivering a wild but effective leaping slash. Spotting the telltale flicker of electricity, Evan screamed 'Down!' and dropped flat. The other soldier copied him as Airbuster exploded, more violently than usual. Maybe the plan from the start had been to consume AVALANCHE when it exploded. If so, it had been only partially successful. SB and Big guy were still there, but Spikehead was nowhere to be seen. The two survivors were leaning out over where the walkway had been. Evan heard "Barret, take care of Tifa." Spikehead was good; there was no question of that. Not many people could have saved themselves even as long as he had. Would he have a similar talent for falls? Time would tell. Was SB Tifa? Probably.

And Big guy was Barret. Assuming they were stupid enough to use their real names.

One of the soldiers was trying to catch his attention.

"Yes...Carl, isn't it?"

"No, sir, but that's not important. We have to get out of here! That man has an assault gun. He could pick us all off from where he's standing before he gets in our range. We have to get out of here before he recovers."

"Point taken. You heard the man. Move."

They fled. It was a confusing network of tunnels they found themselves in, but someone had thoughtfully marked the way to ground level. They followed the route, not wishing to get lost and hearing the AVALANCHE's not far behind. Their route ended at a steel wall, and a bomb, which one of the other soldiers set off by shooting before they reached it. The wall was blasted to pieces and the six soldiers ran out. To find themselves next to the Honey Bee Inn, a building they knew well. There were an unusual number of thugs with shotguns hanging around, although most were now prostrate from the explosion. They knew what that meant as well. The other five soldiers made as though to continue running, but Evan directed them into the building.

The Don, wearing a bathrobe and two holsters, one for a pistol and one for a sub machine gun, strode out of a cubicle and demanded to know what was going on. As several bullets, courtesy of Barret, ripped holes in the walls, Evan grabbed the Don by the throat and shoved his face to one of the bulletholes.

"You see that man? You see that man?"

"Yep. What about him?" In another situation, the Don had a very different mode of speech, but having a gun to his head left him very compliant.

"Can you track him?"

"Yep. That gun-arm is pretty distinctive. Brotch?"

One of the Don's four aides, Brotch, Botch, Kotch and Skotch, said "Yeah?"

"Tail the Bruiser after he leaves."

"Gotcha."

"Will you let go of me n-who is she?"

Evan looked out a bullet hole above the Don's. SB/Tifa ran past. He hadn't got a good look at her before. Spikehead had at least one redeeming quality, apparently-good taste in women. He debated telling the Don she was a terrorist, then decided against it. It might prove entertaining.

He made sure Brotch was on his way, then released the Don. He turned to walk away-then felt the gun barrel up against his ribs even before the Don said "Look down."

Evan turned, slowly so as not to cause alarm, and said, "Look down further." The Don glanced down, and swallowed. Evan had a gun too. In fact, it was the Don's own pistol, drawn from his holster when he wasn't looking.

"Wutaiean standoff, fellas!" yelled Botch gleefully.

"You won't kill me. The Shinra need me."

"True." Evan lowered his aim. "But you can still serve Shinra minus an...appendage or two."

The Don went chalk white. Both soldiers and lackeys drew weapons. But nobody was firing...yet.

"Hey, what's going on?" On of the most beautiful creatures Evan had ever seen emerged from the cubicle the Don had emerged from. She sidled up behind the Don and wrapped arms around his neck. He leaned back, but his aim didn't waver.

Evan was struggling to fight down an incredulous laugh. You would think that he'd be thinking of something else while at gunpoint, but no. He glanced around. Several of Corneo's lackeys were holding a shotgun in one hand, with the other wrapped around a woman. Strange, but then, they didn't have the benefit of his informal training. Shinra barracks had communal showers for both genders. Friendly leers were encouraged, but anything further was punished ruthlessly. At least, in the shower. The Shinra 'Military Liaison Office' consisted of a bed, which was sterilized every morning. He'd met his current girlfriend, Riana, in the Shinra showers. She'd –

What the fuck was he doing? Inattention was what cost lives in these situations. He was fucking lucky the Don was in no condition to capitalize. His eyes were half closed. The slight hip movement of the girl behind him would have been imperceptible to anyone not watching for it. The gunpoint dipped...

-and Evan made his move. The gun skittered across the floor into the corner. The Don was knocked out cold by his full armed punch. By the time the Lackeys started firing the Shinra's were almost through the door. As they fled, one of the soldiers, Evan thought his name was Frank, said "I hope you haven't got us killed, you dumb fuck.

_I hope not, my friend, I hope not_

--

The dialogue taken from the game is inexact, sorry. I know this chapter is full of plot holes, but I couldn't have done it any other way. Please review.


	4. Chapter 4

Evan and his five soldiers hadn't even got out of Wall Market before the PHS rang.

"Yeah?"

"Who's this?" It was Reno's voice. He sounded...worried. Not frightened, but definitely unsettled. Evan gave his serial number and name.

"A Shinra soldier? Where are you?

"The edge of Wall Market."

"The brothel?" Now he sounded amused.

"No, the boutique." Evan answered dryly.

"On duty? Really? Well-never mind. Look, the plate's blocking my signal to HQ, could you forward a message? I've two concussed soldiers here, and it looks like one has broken legs and probably some ribs as well. The weird monsters that live here are getting excited by the smell of blood. I can deal with them, but I can't protect both soldiers, and the unhurt MP is really struggling. I need a-hang on a sec-" There was the distinctive sound of something being fried by a Mag-Rod, and Reno came back on the line.

"If I don't get a Med-Team down here fast, I'm gonna lose them. Can you get a signal from where you are?"

"No, but I will in about thirty seconds. Where are you?"

"A church in the sector five slums. They got barrels of water dropped on their heads from the rafters. The targets escaped through a hole in the roof, apparently made when one of them fell through it beforehand."

_Fell through the roof in sector five...huh?_

"Spiked blond hair? Mako eyes?"

"You know him?"

"He's AVALANCHE. Hang on, we'll be there."

Evan hung up. The soldiers with him had heard every word, and had started moving before he gave the order. Reno was a fairly popular figure among Shinra troops. He' didn't throw soldiers into meat grinders for no reason, he wasn't over zealous about his work, and had an amazing success rate even so. Enemies of Shinra beware! The day a sober Turk who takes his job seriously joins up, nothing will stand in Shinra's way!

In fact, there once had been such a specimen, but Hojo, in an act of idiocy unusually insane even for him, had apparently seized upon the chance to turn one of Shinra's more gifted employees against them. He'd turned Vincent into a test subject, raped his girlfriend, then injected them both with Jenova cells. Immediately after the birth of Hojo's child by Lucretia, she'd vanished, presumably by Hojo's hand. Vincent recovered, killed dozens of Hojo's best researchers, and shot the man himself fifteen times in the chest, before being overpowered by seven First Class SOLDIERS. He hadn't been seen since. Hojo survived by the skin of his teeth. Funding for the Jenova project had been slashed, so Hojo had financed the Sephiroth and Sephiroth clone projects out of his own pocket.

When Evan and his soldiers reached the old playground, where there was a slight gap in the plate above, Evan forwarded Reno's call to HQ. They then proceeded to the sector five church, where they found Reno almost waist deep in red ash. Several other hedgehog pies were encased in pyramids nearby. Reno had sustained some fairly serious burns, but all three MPs were alive. The monsters retreated after seeing the six relatively fresh soldiers arrive, and there was no trouble. The Med-Team arrived half an hour later with an Aero Combatant escort, and the three MPs were airlifted to Upper Sector Six Medical Centre. The soldiers dispersed, but just as Evan was about to go home, he received an urgent summons from Heidegger.

- - - - - -

_I love getting sidetracked by backstory. Expect a lot of meandering with little details like the Vincent story. Please review._


	5. Consequences

**Consequences**

Heidegger's office in the Shinra building was not a place designed to put you at your ease. Especially if you're a soldier being disciplined. Evan was, to put it mildly, absolutely terrified. However mild Heidegger was with the Prez, his temper was renowned, and the destruction of two reactors had left him working overtime to improve security on the streets. His tone was deceptively soft.

"Tell me, ...Evan, why is it that I have just received a strongly worded message from one Don Vito Corneo quoting your serial number and demanding swift retribution?"

"Couldn't say, sir."

"What happened after the no. five reactor blew? To you and your troop, I mean."

"We departed the reactor and followed a trail, presumably marked for AVALANCHE, emerging next to the Honey Bee Inn in Wall Market. Hearing the AVALANCHE members close behind, we entered the building and persuaded the Don to help us track them down."

"Departed? I would say fled."

"With respect, sir, we were no good to Shinra dead. By departing, we convinced the Don to track AVALANCHE. And he will get results, sir. Past records are in his favour."

"Still, you had no means pulling a gun on one of our most prominent citizens. And threatening castration!!!"

"He pulled his gun on me first, sir. I was pretty sure he'd believe I'd do it, whereas he knew I couldn't kill him. He's unharmed, sir. And it will work."

"A couple of customer witnesses back your story. For now, you're free to go. We'll decide what to do with you later."

"Yessir."

As he left the office, he heard Heidegger murmur "Get me a secure line to Don Corneo" into his intercom.


	6. Consequences II

_Disclaimer: I don't own the Blair Witch Project._

**Consequences II**

For the first time in over three days, Evan went home. He fed the cat. He bought the Shinra Times and checked the TV guide. At 9 P.M. exactly, he started watching a horror movie named The Bone Village Witch Project. It had been filmed with a camcorder and was really fucking freaky to watch.

About the time human fingers started appearing outside the tent in the mornings, Evan went into the kitchen to get a drink. Much to his disgust, the fridge was empty, and he had to settle for tap water. When filling it, he thought he saw a glimmer of movement out the window and switched on the back porch light even as he dismissed it as a reaction to the movie. Botch was leveling his shotgun.

Dropping flat, Evan flung his glass through the window, his aim perfect. It hit Botch squarely in the nose, and he screamed as it shattered. Snatching a meat fork from a drawer, Evan fled the room, knowing Don Corneo would not be so stupid as to send only one thug on an assassination attempt. He was proved right when he saw another thug at the front porch, tossing Molotov cocktails through a broken window pane. Evan broke cover with his meat fork, confident he could deal with however many thugs there were as long as they didn't take him by surprise. The bullet from behind hit him in the shoulder.

_Awful shot. He should have killed me._

Diving back into cover, Evan snuck out of the house and climbed a drainpipe, entering an upstairs window. Tiptoeing past the thug watching the stairs, he entered his room and strapped into his Mighty Guard armour. Soldiers weren't allowed bring their weapons home, but you could bring your armour if you lived in the slums. Sneaking back to the top of the stairs, Evan impaled the thug from behind, then descending the stairs. The place was burning pretty quickly, so he wasted no time in charging down the stairs and killing the third thug. Circling the house, he found Botch lying where he'd left him. After impaling him through the throat, he picked up the man's shotgun. One bullet in the chamber. Almost poetic.

_Big mistake, Don. Big mistake._

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Not much of a chapter, but it needs to be put in.


	7. Honeybee Manor

**Honeybee Manor**

Before he headed to sector six, Evan paid a visit to the homes of the five soldiers who'd been with him in The Honey Bee Inn. One was a smoking ruin, while one was still burning in earnest. Outside it, Frank was perched on the garden wall, being restrained by two MPs from running into the house. Nine of the Don's thug's were lying nearby, all with horrific wounds, presumably from the bloody sledge hammer lying nearby. Frank was in tears, as another six MPs carried three body bags out of the house, two of them too small to be adults. One of the MPs was telling another, out of Frank's earshot, that his wife had been raped before they'd burnt down the house and his children mutilated. Evan considered showing himself to show comfort, then dismissed the notion. Frank would probably put a bullet through him for causing the situation. And he'd be right.

_How could I have been so stupid! I humiliated the man in front of his thugs AND his favorite whores! Did I think he was just going to let it go!?_

The other two houses were untouched. Apparently the Don had lost his entire hit squad. But that didn't change a thing. Thugs were a gil per dozen in Midgar if you knew where to find them.

When he reached sector six, it had already been what passed for day in the plate-covered slums for several hours. Wall Market was crowded. There was no way in hell he was going to get away with this. But currently Evan didn't care. Normally a pragmatic, cautious man, Evan nevertheless did not like seeing people getting killed through his mistakes. And since it was his mistake in the first place, he should be the one to pay for it.

The Don's security door was open. Unable to believe his luck, Evan entered silently. He was at the door to the Don's office when the earthquake hit, literally knocking him over the banister to the reception area. Abandoning his plans for the present, he sprinted to the entrance of the building, knowing a horde of the Don's thugs would soon investigate. The dust was just settling as he reached the door.

Sector seven...was gone. The entire village was now a mass of rubble, upper and lower. Evan stood there, stunned; heedless of the fact he was standing there in full view of any horde of the Don's thugs who must come to investigate the quake. Was this AVALANCHE's revenge for trying to hunt them down? More lives, laid at his feet.

It took him a minute to recover, and he plunged back into the building, wondering why none of the hirelings had investigated. He went into the Don's office cautiously, shotgun ready in one hand, the other clutching his shoulder. He hadn't been injured in his fall, but God, it had hurt! He halted on the verge of the curtain as he heard voices.

"Thank you for coming at such short notice, my dear. I'm a bit short staffed at the moment." The Don's voice, of course.

"How come? I thought you had an interview today." A female voice, probably his new girl.

"I did. Most of the guys were on errands for me already, but I kept enough for safety, I thought. They should be back soon."

_Errands. That must be his hit squad. Sorry, Don, they're all dead, courtesy of me and Frank._

The Don continued talking. "One of today's girls was a man. It was so humiliating! He put no effort into his disguise whatsoever! No prosthetic breasts, no make up, just a wig and a dress! Hoping I wouldn't notice his Mako eyes and stubble! Even if I hadn't noticed that, I would've seen the glances he was giving the other two. Or seen the huge sword stuffed down the back of the dress. So, of course I chose one of the other girls and gave him to the men to teach him a lesson. And you know what? He killed them all! Cept Kotch who he just beat up. Then he burst into my room with the other girl. And the girl I'd chosen ripped off her dress. Of course, she had shirt on beneath it, but I thought she was coming on to me. Then she takes a pair of boxing gloves out of her pockets and threatens me with castration if I don't tell her why I've been hunting AVALANCHE. It was the same girl who ran past the honey bee inn yesterday, by the way, after Reactor five got bombed, the one with the big breasts aand long hair. Spikehead was glancing from side to side like a man in paradise, and each girl was glancing back. It was weird...two beautiful women in the same room as me, and ignoring me for some Shinra reject who resembles a chocobo! And God, were they beautiful! No offense, dear, but man, you look like a toad in comparison!"

Evan collapsed in the Don's chair, stifling treacherous laughter._ Spikehead, you are one dumb son-of-a-bitch, but you're hilarious, so I forgive you. My God..._

The woman made a muffled reply. Apparently she was talking around a mouthful of something. The Don continued his narrative.

"So I opened the trapdoor and asked you to come here, and that's the end of my story. Time to get down to business."

Evan could have gone in then, but he was still helplessly laughing in the chair. It died abruptly as he heard the Don suddenly say "Ah, you're useless. Go find Kotch and tell him I've forgiven the woman and he can send her to me. You can replace her for him. No-Don't dress! Get her up here quick before I lose the mood!"

Evan left the chair, standing at one side of the curtain. A pretty girl came out, wearing a short skirt and nothing else. He hit her on the temple with the shotgun barrel, catching her before she hit the floor and putting her in the chair. She'd only be knocked out for about thirty seconds, so he had to move fast. And look out for some sort of trap involving a trapdoor. He stepped inside the curtain, raising the shotgun.

"Who are you?" Then, as the uniform registered. "No! I didn't mean to tell them about the pillar! I had to!"

_He told AVALANCHE how to destroy the pillar? _

"I'm not bothered about that."

"OK...Hey, I know that voice! You're the one I met in the Honey Bee Inn! Look, I'm sorry about the hit squad. The Inn didn't like see a customer humiliated. They ordered it!"

"Yeah, sure."

"Shinra'll kill you if you kill me! You know that!"

"Yeah, you're right." The Don's face relaxed. "But you'll kill me if I don't. Goodbye, Don." The Don's hand darted for his bedside lamp, and the floor dropped away beneath Evan's feet, but he'd been ready. His left hand caught the foot of the bed, while his right pulled the trigger.

_Blam._

Shotguns weren't meant to be fired one-handed. The recoil spun it out of his grip and down the trapdoor. But he'd hit his target, and the Don slumped back on his bed.

Pulling himself up, Evan tossed the Don's corpse into the trapdoor and reset it. He entered the outer room. The girl was awake, but she hadn't moved from the chair. A single set of footsteps was heard, running towards the office. Evan crouched behind the chair as Kotch burst in, gun at the ready. This was no shotgun; this was a machine gun, the best of Shinra issue. It'd shred his Mighty Guard armour instantly.

"Kotch!" The girl yelled, flinging herself at him. Kotch wrapped his arms around her, closing his eyes. Evan moved silently past them, out the door to the balcony. He looked back. The girl was looking directly at him. She mouthed _Go, go. _He did, heading down to the Torture Chamber. As he'd expected, the woman who'd been with the Don in the Inn was tied to the table. She raised her head. He hid next to the staircase as voices, then footsteps floated to his ears.

"...See, the Don decided I wasn't good enough, so he sent me to get you. Only, by that time I was pretty...engaged, so he had to fire a shot into the ceiling to get my attention."

"Kay. Let's go get her." Not a bad story, on the spur of the moment.

Evan swung an armoured fist at the first person past him, hoping it wasn't the girl. It wasn't. Kotch collapsed. Evan untied the woman on the table, then tied Kotch in her place. The girl-and on closer inspection she really was a girl, maybe sixteen or seventeen, led the woman to the reception desk and tossed her some clothes from a shelf. She then went back upstairs to the Don's room to get her own. Evan followed, enjoying the view, but also curious. When she'd finished, he asked her "Why'd you help me?"

Her stare was steady, frightened but not panicked. "Because you would've killed Kotch if I hadn't. He's actually pretty decent most of the time."

"Right. Where does the trapdoor go?"

"The sewers. He wanted a pit of iron spikes, but Shinra wouldn't give him a permit. So a monster's released every time he drops somebody."

"Thanks. Hang on a sec."

Evan went back to the torture room. He picked up Kotch's gun. The man himself was conscious already. Using the gun to cover the serial number on his chest, Evan said in his most commanding voice "We had an information leak, you good for nothing fuck. The Don has been taken for questioning. If you raise an alarm or enquire, you will vanish. You won't even be history. You'll never have existed. Understand?"

Kotch nodded. Evan left. Back in the Don's room, he asked the girl "What are you going to tell the magistrate?"

"I'll say I lured you over the trapdoor with the promise of a free thank-you fuck."

"Okay. Drop me-" No explanation was necessary. He was going to make a speech, but she'd either caught on to his idea or decided to get rid of him. He landed, and managed not only to keep his feet, but to keep the gun dry.

Either spikehead and co. had killed the monster or sector seven coming down had destroyed the machinery, but nothing attacked. The water was waist deep and rising all the time, as obviously the sewers under sector seven had been crushed by the plate. It'd be a serious health problem soon. But it wasn't his problem now. His problem was getting out before he drowned.

Thankfully, sector seven had also knocked the grille across the sewer heading upstream askew, so he wasn't trapped. Progress was painfully slow, but it was possible to wade. Sahagin after sahagin ambushed him again and again, and soon his outer armour shattered. But he survived to reach a manhole in sector five. Only to find it blocked by debris. Scarlet's factories were in upper sector five, and she tossed waste machine parts off the plate, which had largely contributed to sector five being the poorest district. It took him several hours to clear it, but then he was able to open it, climb up, and clamber over the wreckage, dumping Kotch's gun. He'd emerged near Reno's church, and was close to the city's edge. Maybe he was going to dget away with this after all...

"Freeze!"

Sighing, Evan turned. Reno was there, along with two MPs. Both of which had a bead drawn on his forehead. This was not a good day.

- - - - - - - - - -

Sorry, this chapter's dangerously close to the 'whore with heart of gold' cliché. What do you think?


	8. Enter Sephiroth

_Sorry, I don't do a very good Reno. And I do an awful Sephiroth. _

**Enter Sephiroth**

Only when he was inside the helicopter and handcuffed to the side did the MPs lower their aim. As if he was about to try escape. While he could take down the two MPs fairly easily, what was the point? He wasn't going to get away from the Turks if they really wanted him found. Although Reno didn't seem to be in great shape. He limped, and he was covered in cuts and bruises. Curious, Evan decided to ask. And he did.

"AVALANCHE happened." He took out his Mag-rod and stared at it sadly. "I dented this off Cloud's head, can you believe that? It's damaged badly enough that it nearly electrocuted me the next time I tried to fry Tifa."

"He survived that?"

"No...but Tifa revived him a couple of seconds later, so it didn't matter." Phoenix and Condor feathers could revive the dead, as long as the corpse wasn't irreparably damaged. Another reason Sephiroth had been famous was because of his special thrust that destroyed lungs, heart and spine without taking all that time to mutilate corpses.

"And after all that, they didn't die when the pillar came down."

"What? You were responsible for that?"

"Yep. Relax, Reeve evacuated the place once we'd sucked in AVALANCHE. Why do you think I took the time to fight them instead of just getting out of there instantly? Tseng and I had to hold them there long enough that all the people could get out but not give AVALANCHE enough time. Of course there were probably some people too stupid or stubborn to move, but what can you do?"

"You're sure?"

"Yes." No hesitation, but Evan reserved judgment. Reno kept talking.

"I don't see why the President viewed this mission as a failure. After all, the pillar fell, several members of AVALANCHE got killed, AND we finally nabbed that ancient in the bargain."

"How do you know all AVALANCHE isn't dead?"

"Because they turned up at Shinra HQ a few hours later."

"WHAT?"

"Yep. They found their way to the 68th floor somehow, beat up Hojo, killed the security specimen of the day, and stole two of his research specimens. They very nearly got out of the building, and probably would have if a soldier hadn't wandered down to the 59th floor to stretch his legs and noticed the guards were gone. He raised the alarm, and Tseng and Rude caught them actually in the lift on the way down. They're in cells in the building now. Hojo was rushed to Junon medical centre."

"He was that badly hurt?"

"Not in itself, no, but one of the bullets Vincent Valentine shot him with all those years ago shook itself loose and punctured his lung. Surgeons are busy trying to remove it. They've only found three of the fifteen so far, counting this one. He'll probably be healed by tomorrow, considering all the Mako he's pumped into himself."

"So what happened to the specimens? Is there a Behemoth wandering around the Shinra building or something?"

"No, the specimens are in the cells with AVALANCHE. They're not monsters. One's actually human, and one's one of those nameless dog things from Cosmo canyon."

That was odd. Why was he talking casually about what were probably company secrets? Evan let him continue, careful to remain noncommittal.

"Apparently they only took the Cosmo Canyonite because he happened to be in the observation capsule at the time, along with Aeris."

"Really? What was Hojo trying to do?"

"The techs won't tell me. I thin-"

Then an alarm blared in the helicopter and Reno screamed at the pilot "Take us to HQ! Now!" typing frantically at a console set into the wall until a view of the Shinra building appeared on the screen. Evan leaned close, fascinated by what was happening onscreen.

- - - - - -

Sephiroth drew his feet up, then kicked the end out of the crate. He slid out of it, grimacing slightly as the mind of the vessel he was inhabiting put up a last futile fight. It was Hojo's only successful Sephiroth clone, and thus the only one the man had deigned to keep in captivity, which would prove to be a fatal mistake if Sephiroth found him.

Standing, Sephiroth stretched, then abruptly ducked behind the pile of crates as one of Hojo's staff walked past. The man examined Jenova, and was about to walk on when Sephiroth snapped the unfortunate creature's neck from behind. Quickly searching the corpse, he salvaged two materia from the man's weapon. A Restore and a Destruct. The Destruct was probably useless, as it hadn't been used yet and, unless procedures had changed in the last five years, none of the Shinra HQ guards were supplied with Barrier materia anyway. The Restore was fully evolved, however and would be extremely useful.

Okay, so his assets were...a Clone of himself, with all the supernatural abilities that that entailed-teleportation, flight, limited telepathy, telekinesis and the ability to cast illusions. Yes, that sounded good, but his teleportation and flight abilities were localized, scarcely enough to make a dramatic exit, never mind escape a prison. His telepathic abilities were limited to other Clones, and his telekinesis couldn't hurt a fly, instead knocking it backwards and pissing it off. That left illusions, which didn't fool security cameras, robots, or even strong-willed creatures. He had no weapon and no offensive Materia. His Clone form wasn't nearly as powerful as his real form would have been. Another security guard would be along in a few minutes. This escape was hopeless. He could climb back into his crate and wait for a better opportunity...

_And spend another couple of years immobile in a cave being berated by the severed head of my dearest Mother? Fuck that._

Crossing to Jenova's containment cell, he tore open the door. Jenova promptly ripped it off its hinges.

**What took you so long, you dumb son of a bitch!**

"...Mother, do you realize what you've just said?"

Jenova was silent. Sephiroth sighed and picked her up, trying hard to ignore the blood, pus, and other ichors so obscure as to not having a name that were being smeared onto his coat. He set off towards the specimen elevator, staggering slightly under her weight, but then he remembered about the Puppet and turned back towards the cells.

Although the guard was having a quiet smoke and not really very alert, a piece of Jenova chose the exact wrong moment to part company with the main body and hit the ground with an unpleasant squelching noise. The guard whirled, raising his weapon. Dropping Jenova, Sephiroth drop-kicked her, sending her sailing towards the guard. The man got off several bursts, which passed through Jenova with a similar effect to bullets passing through balloons filled with porridge. It didn't save him, however, and Jenova had begun methodically savaging the corpse before it hit the ground. Sephiroth examined his forearm, fascinated. He was bleeding...his skills must have deteriorated more than he'd thought. Five years being dead was just no excuse. Not only had the man had a chance to fire, he'd managed to vent a strangled scream!

Reaching around Jenova, he picked up the guard's keys and tried out his telepathy. The Puppet was in the middle cell dreaming about being chased by rabid chocobos, in fact. He opened the door...

_What the hell? This is the Puppet? Didn't I kill him?_

Suddenly the scabbard on the Puppet's back was empty, and the blade was inches from his throat. Hands shaking, Sephiroth fought to pull it back.

_No...Must not...kill...yet...Ruin...plans..._

With an enormous effort, the sword gradually fell away from Cloud's throat and Sephiroth replaced it in his sheath. Done so delicately the man never stirred.

Sephiroth had reached the door before it registered who the girl on the bunk was. Snatching up Jenova, he sprinted away before he decapitated them both. Of course, Jenova was heavy, and his Clone wasn't very fit, so he had to drop her and drag her, leaving an interesting trail of blood for the next security guard to happen along to find. _Yep, this escape attempt is doomed. Thank you, Mother, great planning._

In an uncharacteristic fit of rage, he kicked the crate he'd emerged from several minutes before. Something rattled inside. Bending, he upended the crate, and was overjoyed to find what appeared to be his Masamune falling out.

On closer inspection, he discovered it was not, in fact, Masamune but a cheap imitation. Still, he was a hell of a lot more optimistic about what he was doing than he had been a few minutes ago. He continued on his way, killing everything in his path and a few things that weren't. He didn't chase anyone who ran away, though. His Clone _had _been in a crate for who knew how long, and it was still too stiff for a high speed chase. This meant that silent alarms were blaring all over the building by the time he got to the 69th floor, and almost proved his undoing.

When he stalked through the door that contained the stairs to the 70th floor, he was immediately knocked back through as several dozen odd carrot shaped things blew themselves up. A flying sickle from a 3rd class SOLDIER almost took his head off, five Zenenes tried to kill him with poisoned clouds, etc, etc. Two brain pods tried to charge him immediately afterwards and he skewered them, also cutting to pieces all six Carrot things that followed. After another twenty or so creatures had been cut to pieces, the wave slackened and he had time to cast a Cure3.

He knew about this security measure. Upon serious breach of the building, the President could release hundreds of low level monsters, which would flood the room immediately below his office and gradually wear down anyone attempting to ascend. One of Hojo's staff would be controlling them by remote control. The question was how many were there and how efficient was the staff member?

**That's two questions.**

"Shut up, Mother." _Trust you to keep talking minus a head._

And that gave him an idea. He drew Masamune.

**Sephiroth? What are you-Don't you dare...I'll get you for thi-**

_Swish._

"Calm down, Mother. If you don't need a head, why bother with tentacles? Besides, you'll re-form at the Reunion anyway."

He kicked the two tentacles through the door just before they morphed into huge monsters and were set upon by the army of monsters. Shielded by the tentacles, Sephiroth examined the army. There were about a thousand of them, two 3rd class SOLDIERs, and yes-there was a man in a suit with a remote. But he'd have to wade through corpses to get there, and if the Jenova's didn't, he wasn't about to. And they didn't. Both Jenova's were obliterated before they'd killed more than a tenth of the monsters-and if he remembered correctly, the monsters were produced by the score every five minutes. He had twenty five minutes to hack his way through. They couldn't get to him through the door, but if he was still here by morning, Jenova could kiss her plans goodbye. He was stuck.

Although...why was he stuck? Why not head down to the lobby and walk out? Yes, some soldiers would try to stop him, but he could just fly over them.

**The President would never let us leave. We have to get out over his dead body.**

"Why? How can he stop us? I can understand using him as a hostage to escape, but killing him makes no sense. What are you not telling me, Mother?"

"Fine. Your alternative is to charge in there and cut them all to pieces. Enjoy."

What really irritated him was, he was telling the absolute truth. He had no idea how he was going to get out of here, given Jenova's rules. He couldn't teleport to a place he couldn't see. As soon as he went through that door, he'd be cut to bloody rags. This would inconvenience him slightly. There was no way out. Or was there? One of his few treasured memories came to mind.

.- - - -

_the Wutaian general's forces finally had the Shinra troops beaten, after months of battle. What was left of Sephiroth's regiment was trapped in a box canyon, and a tent had been erected for both generals to discuss terms. Sephiroth's opposite number thought himself a genius, and his tactics during the past two months had given some validity to the thought. However, Sephiroth only commanded a third of the Shinra troops, and both sides knew it. If the Wutaian removed a fraction of his army from the siege, Sephiroth's army would charge. They'd be massacred, but they'd decimate the Wutaian army in the process. There were four other Wutaian legions of ninjas, but the one facing Sephiroth was the core, and without them Wutai would collapse._

_Sephiroth was not inclined to try for a Kamikaze approach, but Wutai was notorious for slaughtering prisoners, so they'd die anyway. It was a delicate negotiating session._

"_We can easily be reinforced. You cannot."_

"_Oh? One of your legions must hold Wutai, and at least two are engaged. And the other was cut to shreds in the battle of Fort Condor three weeks ago."_

_And so on. Neither of them was willing to give an inch. Finally, the Wutaian general sighed and said "This is going nowhere. Would you be willing to risk your life for your troop in a wager?"_

"_That depends. What do you have in mind?"_

"_Roulette?"_

"_I have a better idea. If you leave the tent, I'll poison one of our water glasses. You come back in and choose a glass. I'll drink the other. Whoever lives walks free."_

"_Very well-Done! We'd better go announce the news so neither of us can cheat."_

_They did, then played the game. After careful deliberation, the Wutaian chose a glass. He died. Sephiroth walked free with his army._

_That night, his secretary said, awed, "You are one lucky creature, y'know that? That he picked the wrong glass."_

"_Luck had nothing to do with it. They were both poisoned. I spent years getting resistant to that poison in case this ever happened."_

- - -

Moral of the story: When in a difficult situation, cheat.

He dropped Jenova and left the room.

**What are you doing? Come back here!!**

Upon reaching the elevator, he teleported through the glass, plunging twenty feet or so before he caught himself and flew around to the windows of the room with the monsters in it. Teleporting through the window, he impaled the guy with the remote, catching it as it fell and pressing a random button. Four hundred of the monsters spontaneously combusted. The rest fled. The two SOLDIERs fought well, Sephiroth noted with some pride, but they had no chance against that tide. The monster army tried desperately to squeeze through the narrow doorway at once, and eventually filtered through and fled.

_That should take care of anyone I missed._

Walking back to Jenova, he picked up what was left of her after the army had passed by, and healed her back together as best he could. This took some time- Cloud would wake up soon if he wasn't careful. Then he sheathed his sword and ascended the stairs to the 70th floor.

- -

President Shinra watched with growing rage as Sephiroth butchered his way through the building. He'd known Jenova would make her move sooner or later, but he hadn't expected Hojo to be so inept. The man was usually careful about his specimens, if nothing else. And to supply his clone with a weapon and Materia? Idiocy.

_When I next see you Hojo, we are going to have words. You're not as indispensable as you might think. There's some promising relatives of Dr. Gast eager to try out some...imaginative experiments on you._

He glanced up at Palmer. To the rest of the world, the washed up Head of the Space program was a fat guy who sat in the Shinra buildingall day stuffing himself and lamenting his redundant department, which now consisted of a handful of mediocre techs and a genius out of work pilot. This made him quite an efficient spymaster. After the Wutai war, there had been several...purges as many departments became redundant. All the surviving executives had adapted in different ways. Heidegger and Reeve had survived by gaining totally unassailable positions of power. Scarlet had survived, after all her weapons were deemed unnecessary, because she was a genius when it came to maximizing efficiency in Mako reactors. Hojo had survived because he kept himself surrounded by vicious specimens at all times, and ensuring the world knew it, after which no assassin was stupid enough to accept a contract. But Palmer...he had survived, once the space program had been deemed redundant, by achieving the exact correct balance of harmlessness and tenacity. Not powerful enough to threaten...but just powerful enough it wasn't worth your effort to have him killed. He began putting lard in his tea and becoming less involved in Shinra politics, until everyone had forgotten that the man had once been one of the sharpest minds in Shinra. It was still difficult to believe that he'd pulled off the charade so completely. Rocket Science was _proverbially_ complex, for God's sake! An idiot would be gone long ago! Still, the man was useful, so the President let him live.

It'd be a shame to let Sephiroth kill him. But if he stayed, he'd learn all sorts of secrets it wouldn't be wise for anyone but Hojo and Rufus to know. Tapping a key, he E-mailed his will to his wife. She shouldn't need to open it, if he judged correctly, but he'd learned long ago that there were no absolutes in life. He'd sent it to her before. He just had time to tell Palmer to hide before Sephiroth ascended the stairs.

- -

**Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!**

Sephiroth sighed, but inwardly. There was no way he could carry her up a flight of stairs, so she'd just have to endure it. How could being dragged up stairs hurt, when being dismembered did not? It was one of the mysteries of life.

The president came into view. Drawing the sword he'd just sheathed for dramatic effect, Sephiroth said, slowly and menacingly "I won't let you have the Promised Land."

"Why not?"

Sephiroth blinked. Jenova had drilled him for any number of conversational turns, but not that one. Ignoring the question, he stalked forward, raising the blade. The bolt3 came from nowhere, but Sephiroth had time to use Jenova's bulk as a shield and avoid the worst of it.

"Don't be ridiculous, sir. You haven't a chance against me in a fair fight."

"Who said I was going to fight fair?"

And with that, the President pushed a button on his desk console. Instantly, Sephiroth hit the ground, dropping the sword as terrific pain knocked him flat. Dimly, he saw Jenova thrashing nearby. The President left his chair and walked around to stand in front of him, mockingly nudging Masamune closer with a foot. Sephiroth grabbed it-and the pain trebled. Screaming, he dropped it again. The President laughed aloud, and began to speak.

"Idiot. Did you think Hojo would be so careless with his finest work? Personally, I thought supplying you with a Masamune took symmetry too far, but his implants worked far beyond my expectations. You almost managed to escape. I think at the next board meeting I'll allow him to take you home. He's been refurbishing his containment cells recently. Even without the implant, you'd never escape, and even if you did, you would not be able to rescue your ...Mother? Did she tell you she was your mother? Being forced to donate cells to a person is not motherhood. I can hardly credit that you believed her. Did you really think that that...monstrosity could have spawned you?"

All of these were good points. Sephiroth had always harboured private doubts about that particular story. But three days and nights spent entirely reading had taken their toll, and by the time he was able to think clearly it was too late to go back. Had he really been stupid enough to believe that normal children were raised in Hojo's lab, getting regular Mako injections and being primed for the army? The President was waiting for a response.

"Do you think that what Hojo does to this Clone makes a difference to me? I can abandon it whenever I want." He kept the words from being laboured, but only just.

"True...but Jenova will stay right here, and you won't get near her. I must say, I was impressed by your ability to get this far despite your...mistress' abominable planning. Your father would be proud."

"Let me guess...I'm your son, right?"

"No, of course not. Another man had first claim. A man named-" Jenova filled his mind with mental static, and he missed the name, "You know him quite well."

The President returned to his desk, still speaking. He frowned.

"No reaction? I'd have thought-"

"Jenova blocked it out."

_What are you not telling me, Mother? The implant you never told me about has destroyed your escape attempt, so you can tell me all your secrets from back in your containment cell._

**Never! There's more Jenova in your Clones than there is of you, and I no longer need you to control it! Clone, kill the President."**

_Be my guest._

The combined pain from the Clone and her own implant sent a fresh wave of convulsions through Jenova. The President watched curiously. He might or might not be picking up some of this exchange, depending on how much technology had improved while Sephiroth had been dead. Jenova withdrew from the Clone, briefly taking the pain with her as her mind tangled with the Clones. Sephiroth regained control, leaving to Jenova the sensory nerves but using the motor nerves to snatch up Masamune and launch himself into the air, knowing it was his only chance.

While not quite SOLDIER material, the President wasn't slow either, one hand flicking a switch on his desk while the other drew a gun. He squeezed off one shot, tearing off Sephiroth's left ear, before he was nailed to the chair. Without warning, Jenova gave him back the Clone's nerves, and the rush of blinding pain catapulted Sephiroth across the office. He hit the extra tough, anti-helicopter mounted machine gun glass hard enough to crack it. If it had broken, Jenova's grand quest would have ended right there.The Clone was knocked out.

Not much later, Sephiroth woke up. He staggered over to where Jenova was lying as quickly as he could, wary of the growing pain in his temples. You didn't spend several years locked in Hojo's lab without picking up a few things, and Sephiroth knew exactly what had happened. The surge protectors in his implant had shut it down so that it wouldn't kill him. When it re-charged, he had better be out of range. He tried to pick up Jenova, gave up in disgust, and used several Cure3s on both of them until she was solid enough for him to pick up. This exhausted his Clone's magical capabilities. The next time he went down, he'd stay down.

"What is wrong with you, Mother? You keep falling to pieces."

**Hojo keeps me injected with decomposing agents in case I ever escaped. I should be able to expel them from my system within a week or so.**

"Oh, that's just great. Well, Mother_, despite_ your efforts, we've managed to almost escape Shinra. How far will my flight ability take me?"

**I don't know.**

"Oh well, what's life without some experimentation."

He looked sadly at Masamune. There was no way he'd be able to retrieve it. It would stay electrified for hours.

**The Puppet's awake. Time to go.**

He turned to leave. He'd get a replacement Masamune in that workshop next to the Gold Saucer, but in the meantime, how was he supposed to get by the Midgar Zolom? The President's gun caught his eye where it had fallen. He checked the clip. Seventeen shots. If that didn't kill it, he'd get Jenova to skewer it on a tree or something. Perching on the railing of the balcony outside, he remembered something.

"Mother?"

**Yes?**

"I haven't forgotten about your secrets."

- - - - - -

The helicopter landed. Evan dragged his eyes from the screen and looked around. Reno opened the door. Evan tried to follow, but the handcuffs brought him up short. He could clearly hear Reno's conversation with the leader of the Attack Squad ringing the building.

"Why haven't you gone in?"

"I'm not stupid enough to try. The President is protected as best as I can get him. He's activated the guards in the lift. Hojo's machines have flooded the building with monsters. We have to let them wear Sephiroth down first. They're no match for him, but with the top three floors of the building sealed, enough of them will tire him out. If I sent in my soldiers now, I'd have to unseal the building, and he might well escape. He'll have to cut his way through hundreds of monsters to get to the President. I'd have the man out of the building long ago if he hadn't refused to leave. If Sephiroth does manage to get out, I've three squads of Pursuit troops ready, and I'm awaiting Scarlet's authorization to scramble a Motor Ball. It's not nearly enough, but it's the best I can do on short notice."

"Right. Sorry for distracting you."

Reno got back into the helicopter, murmuring "that guy is the best soldier I've ever seen."

"Why didn't you tell him to stand down?"

"And how do you suppose I'd explain it to him? I'm not supposed to have a spike in the Shinra camera network."

The helicopter took off. Through the window Evan could see the Gravity Bike tm replica that the Gold Saucer had presented to Shinra after the company funded video game had raked in thousands of gil for both organizations and brought the Gold Saucer out of the Great Depression. He wondered if the soldier had missed it. Probably not. The odds that there was fuel in them were a million to one against.

Reno was looking at him.

"So why did you show me?"

"You won't have a chance to tell anyone. You've been sentenced to Fort Condor."

- - - - - - - - - - - -

This chapter was totally unnecessary, but huge fun. Shinra politics always fascinate me. People I plagiarised from include

the fanfiction author Silver Pard, a film called the princess bride-the Wutaian general scene- and of course Final Fantasy VII. Happy Christmas.


	9. Fort Condor

**Fort Condor.**

Fort Condor. Home to Condors and the condemned. Formerly a famous resort town, now home to mercenaries and people on the wrong side of Shinra justice.

When somebody committed a serious crime, mass murder and such, the only possible punishment was the Death penalty. But execution chambers are expensive to build and run, so most were sent to Fort Condor instead, where they were invariably slaughtered by the defenders. Only particularly heinous crimes, such as massacring the Gi tribe or Imitating Scarlet's Laugh, were actually sent to the gas chamber. For crimes such as assaulting a Shinra executive, the perpetrator/s was/were handed over to Hojo. (the last Cosmo Canyonite, Red thirteen, recently escaped from Shinra HQ, had met this fate, as the Gas Chamber's seat was unable to confine him.) If a creature was lucky enough to survive three battles at Fort Condor, he would be released, on the grounds that few would re-offend. If someone did, they were kept in the place permanently. If Fort Condor ever fell, Shinra would get the reactor, if not, well, it saves the cost of feeding and confining our criminals. Heads we win, tails you lose.

If the Shinra ever actually needed anything from the reactor, one squad of trained Shinra soldiers could bring it down in under a day. But first they'd throw everything in the camp at the place to see if it'd stand. Which, more than likely, it would. And kill all the attackers.

Bored and depressed, Evan sat in his surprisingly luxurious tent. He was sitting at the desk they'd given him to 'create a battle plan.' Apparently the newbie always got command; in case somebody who knew something about the place kept his soldiers alive. Instead, he was playing Solitaire. Oh, and brooding over the camp overseer's little speech when he'd arrived. What he'd basically said was 'Hey Evan, just letting you know, you impressed the Shinra execs. when you found out AVALANCHE, so you only have to survive one battle instead of the usual three, but in deference to the fact that you halved the income of the brothel industry and thus pissed off half the city that are gonna raise holy hell if you survive, you've been promoted to Commander of your attack, which is the only position absolutely certain to die during an attack unless you take over the mountain. Which, by the way, is about as likely to happen as hell freezing over. See ya, better luck next time (what next time, ha-ha)."

Black Queen on Red king. Red nine on black ten. Two of hearts up. Red seven on-

'_If you build it, they will come.'_

Evan glanced up. No one in the tent. Red seven on Black eight. Next three cards. Next three cards. Next three cards. Joker, set to one side. Other Joker, set to one-

'_If you build it, they will co-.'_

This time, he saw the microphone. And put three bullets into it with his assault rifle. Which he wasn't allowed to take with him the next day, of course. After all, Shinra rejects shouldn't use Shinra approved weapons, could they? Instead, he had to use a bow, which he hadn't used since he was a cadet. So why had he been given an assault rifle?

"Fucking mind games."

Yep, that was it. Same with the microphone. Wonderful. He lost the game, and fell asleep in his chair.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Kya haha!"

Evan tried hard not to grind his teeth. It was the most earsplitting laugh in existence, and could belong only to the woman sitting across the table from him. Heidegger's was almost as bad, but it obviously irritated Rufus, the new President, as much as him, which was a small comfort. Both of whom were also sitting across from him. It was weird. Why would the President and two Shinra executives come to watch him die? Yes, One or the other would have been unremarkable (it wasn't every day somebody killed one of the most prominent citizens in Midgar. The Don might have set up shop in the slums to be closer to his pet brothel, but the man could afford a penthouse apartment in sector eight any day) but not both. And certainly not the President. They really wanted him dead.

Scarlet had been laughing because she'd just told him he had the right to one request before he was put into the meat grinder. She'd also outlined the stipulations. He couldn't ask for a Med-team, artillery or anything Shinra approved. Obviously, he couldn't ask for acquittal. Evan considered.

"I want...an Airbuster."

He was grimly delighted to see her smirk vanish instantly. But the reply was quick and level.

"Absolutely not!"

Evan pushed his luck. It was clearly going nowhere fast by itself.

"But officially it is a Shinra reject, isn't it? And you've one stored in the sheds here, so I can use it today."

Rufus suddenly laughed aloud. "He's got you, Scarlet."

Scarlet was enraged, but there was nothing she could do. An airbuster was scrambled and readied for battle. He was handed a remote. But Airbusters were notoriously simple to control. The remote consisted of two toggle switches (Program 1/Program 2 and Auto/Manual) and a joystick with a big red button on the tip. More complicated actions were activated by voice command. Pocketing it, he walked out to survey all seven of his troops. Four of Hojo's reject Specimens, a disgraced Shinra soldier, a murderer from sector two, and a Wyvern. And him. And the robot. As the most powerful thing on the battlefield, the robot would naturally assume the role of the Commander. So if he could get it killed before he did in a convincing enough way...

He was feeling marginally more cheerful. His odds of survival had just changed from zero to 50/50. He wondered if he should make a speech, then decided against it. Most people were far too smart to fall for that bullshit. But he had to say something...

"Hi guys, my names Evan Shinra –no, no relation- and I'm the guy whose gonna get you all killed today. Any questions?"

One of Hojo's specimens raised a claw. "This is my third battle. Don't screw up."

"Right. Let's go."

- - - - - -

Rufus Shinra watched this from a distance, speculating.

_Looks like the old man let one of the good ones get himself killed._

"Nice speech."

Rufus looked around. Reno was standing nearby.

"Yeah...Short and to the point, though, so he won't make a politician."

"Assuming he survives. ...Sir, can I ask you something?"

"You can ask. I probably won't answer, though."

"Why are you here? Is he that important?"

"No...I'm on my way to Junon, and I have to wait here until their reception is ready. Y'know, songs, parades, that sort of thing."

The Airbuster smashed down the door of a shed and progressed erratically towards the battlefield, gradually moving less jerkily.

"Five hundred gil says he makes it."

"You're on."

- - - - - - - - -

Evan lined up his troops at the base of the mountain. He didn't know the composition of the enemy troops, so he was going to wait them out. Switching the remote to MANUAL, he set the other switch to program one and waited. One of Hojo's specimens stalked over.

"They usually mine the first hundred yards. The mines don't explode their troops, so be careful."

"Thanks."

Five Attackers suddenly broke cover. Evan pushed a button. The Big Bomber Shell's vibrations set off the entire minefield, killing two Attackers and the others fled. Tactics over, Evan broadcast the word "Charge" from the satellite dish on Airbuster's head. Changing to PROGRAM 2 and AUTO, he pocketed the remote and took the bow off his back. Stringing an arrow, he charged.

At first things went well. Evan killed an enemy archer that was trying to pincushion his Wyvern, and then saw three Attackers beating up a Specimen, killed one and the others fled. By the time he turned, it was too late to flee from a heavily armoured Defender which hit him across the jaw, knocking him to his knees. The second blow felt like it cracked his skull, and his counter sank harmlessly into the man's thick armour. The Defender was literally raising a fist for the finishing blow when the specimen Evan'd helped earlier sank its teeth into his unprotected throat. Taking the remote back out, Evan broadcast the order "fall back!"and regrouped at the base of the mountain. Two specimens and a human were dead, and the Wyvern was badly cut up. But they had a momentary respite as the Airbuster scared away any approaching fighters.

Momentary, because the enemy troops over came their fear quickly and charged again. They charged in pairs, Defenders stepping in front to soak up arrows while Attackers stepped forwards to tackle any specimens that ran at them. His quiver empty, Evan picked up the remote again and switched to manual. The first wave was too close for Shells, but if he guessed right, there would be a group of people with the repair staff near the peak, so he aimed for there. The Shell hit, people screamed, - and the Condor shrieked as the vibrations reached it. Somebody screamed "Down!" and everyone on the field obeyed. A few Defenders in their cumbersome armour were too late, and fried as a plume of pure flame burst over the battlefield. Evan could feel the heat of the Condor's counterattack even though it was nowhere near him. One of the soldiers on the battlefield couldn't duck. The plume hit the Airbuster in the chest, melting metal like butter, before abruptly winking out. The Fort Condor soldiers fell back in confusion.

"Damage report!" Evan told the remote furiously.

'PROGRAM 1 INOPERATIVE!' blared the remote mechanically 'PROGRAM 2 INOPERATIVE! PROGRAM 3 INOPERATIVE! FUEL CELL PUNCTURED! REPEAT, FUEL CELL PUNCTURED! EXPLOSION IMMINENT IN FIVE...FOUR...THR-'

Evan gunned the joystick forwards so hard it snapped. The robot whirred over his head and exploded, cutting a large hole in the ranks of the Fort Condor soldiers massing for another charge. The Shinra soldiers fled, seeing soldiers pouring out of the building at the peak. Fifty...Seventy–five...hundred. Hurting Condors was not a smart move at Fort Condor. The Shinra camp was already dismantling as fast as it could, trucks full of convicts screaming downhill. Entering the camp, Evan looked around wildly- for something, anything.

"Hey, Evan!"

He turned. Reno was hovering in a helicopter five feet from the ground. He made the jump easily, escaping the tide of humans washing over the camp below. Reno was delighted about something, enough that he forgot to handcuff Evan. As the helicopter rose, they could see Tseng walking into the Mythril mine."

"What's he doing there?"

"Preparing a welcoming committee for AVALANCHE. You're a fucking genius, you know that? Fort Condor was so pissed by what you did to the Condor; they spent all their money on the counterattack. They'll barely be able to finance the next few defenses. Fort Condor is about to fall within the next year."

"What about AVALANCHE? They're heading this way; they might decide to help finance it."

Reno shrugged. "Then they cut into their own finances."

"Will we be able to launch an attack? They've wrecked the camp."

"Mercenaries are hired for one battle. They won't hold it, and we'll be able to re-establish it in about an hour. I wouldn't be surprised if the overseer doesn't order another attack instantly." Suddenly he laughed. "I doubt they'll allow more than one mine at a time to be planted any more!"

Evan leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes._ That has to use up the last of my luck._

"So what's going to happen to me?"

"Apparently you impressed the President with your display out there. He doesn't think it's safe for you to go back to Midgar, so you've been reassigned to Junon."

_Apparently not._


	10. Junon, part I

**Junon**

_Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Click. Click. Click. Click._

Switching guns, Evan fired a burst that brought down three Mono Drives. He was down to his last few rounds, and the things just kept coming. The seventeen survivors shot jets of flame at him that he was hard put to dodge. Some of them he didn't. They were coming from eleven pipes around the room, ten of which he'd managed to seal, but the last one was pretty heavily guarded. He wasn't going to reach it. Jumping off the ladder, he took the fall on his shoulder and rolled upright on the floor of the room, prompting many of the Mono Drives to follow. Giving him a clearer shot at the pipe. He wasted his last few machine-gun bullets shooting at the clip stopping the pipe's cover from sliding down over it. Throwing the empty gun at a Mono Drive that was getting close; he took out his rifle and finally managed to hit the clip.

_Clang._ Game over. Now he just had to get out. Easier said than done. The surviving Mono Drives descended. He didn't have enough ammo to kill half of them. Shrugging, he raised empty hands.

"Simulation over." said a pleasant robotic voice "Thank you for your time."

Retrieving his guns, Evan walked over to the door. At first, it had struck him as odd that the final test involved Mono Drives, where in previous levels he'd been fighting Hammer Blasters and Kalm Fangs. But skill wasn't everything. The door opened, and the Senior Grunt in charge of his new squad handed him a few Hi-potions. Then they headed to the locker room, where his new uniform awaited.

- - - - - - - -

It was an old Junon tradition that the rookies in the garrison served for a while with the elites. So he was serving with the best unit in Junon. He'd been promoted to Attack Squad immediately, and had signed for Submarine crew training in his free time. After his assessment simulation, his unit had been given the evening off to show him around Junon. Since he had nothing to wear but his armour, for obvious reasons, they'd brought him shopping and were now on their way back to the barracks to change.

"Hey."

Six guns were instantly trained on the alley that the voice had spoken from. The other three were scanning in all directions in case the voice was a diversion.

"Hey, guys."

"...Yeah?" The Senior Grunt (her name was Nicole, he thought)

answered cautiously.

"I need you to do something for me."

"And you are?"

"That doesn't matter."

Catching Nicole's attention, Evan mouthed the word 'Sephiroth' at her. He recognized the voice from the Shinra building security footage. She inclined her head slightly, and said aloud "So what's this service?"

"Nothing much. If you see a man with yellow hair and Mako eyes, tell him a man in a black cape is wandering around the city. _Yellow_ hair, not blond, as in Chocobo feather yellow. Make it interesting, say he's killed some of your soldiers or something."

"Have you?"

"_Not yet."_ Not stupid, Nic recognized the menace in that tone and let it drop. Evan spoke up.

"Do we get a reward?"

**Just kill him. It's less expensive.**

"Mother, wait!

Seeing the glow, Evan dived aside just as a Bio3 passed through where he would have been standing and started eating into the pavement. The squad was just about to fire when a pair of empty hands emerged from the shadows. One of them had the number '1' inked on it. Meanwhile, there was the sound of somebody kicking flesh, and Sephiroth saying, quietly but audibly "Mother. Don't you think they'll balk if I kill one of them? Besides, I don't have Masamune and you're not strong enough yet. We might kill three or four, but we'd both die in the process. Well, this Clone'd die and you'd need a few years to re-form. Think things out before you act, or I'll cut you up and send you back to Hojo for his birthday." Then, louder "A reward? Why not? Catch." One of the hands disappeared briefly and a large bag came out of the shadows and landed just beyond them. Going closer than Evan thought he personally would have dared, a man named James opened the bag with his gun barrel, and, once he'd ascertained that there were no nasty traps inside shared out the coins inside, amounting to 2,000 gil each.

"Satisfied?" asked Sephiroth softly. "You'd better be. That's all I can spare. Incidentally, if you see the man I'm talking about and DON'T tell him that, I'll find you and skin you all alive. Understand?" Without waiting for a response, the hands vanished.

"Well, that was...interesting. Where to now?" James asked brightly, startling them all.

"So what do you think of him?" Nic asked Emma, another squad member, as they continued to the barracks, shaken but not unduly worried. Sephiroth hadn't asked anything difficult.

"Who, Sephiroth or Evan?"

"Evan. We can't do anything about Sephiroth for the moment."

"Smart. Doesn't take stupid risks, he won't get himself killed angling for a promotion. A decent shot, but not a great one-You or me would've hit that clip straight away. Tends to waste bullets making sure his targets are really dead, which is all part of the 'avoid stupid risks' instinct, but that's what got him killed in the end. If he'd had more ammo near the end he would've destroyed all those Mono Drives. He's definitely good, might even have made this squad eventually. Shame about the talent for making enemies."

Nic glanced across. Evan was talking to James but his eyes were moving, watching for shadows. A man of average height, with grey green eyes and black hair. A permanent hunted expression, probably justifiable considering why he'd left Midgar. He might be smart, but seemed to speak without thinking a lot. That remark to Sephiroth almost got him killed. Not for the first time, Nic found herself wondering about that stupid tradition. Their other rookie at present, Zack(A.K.A. Spike because of his spiked black hair) was walking on Evan's other side. He was just a kid, fifteen or sixteen, and was barely able to salute without knocking himself out. What a crew.

"Y'know that Bottomswell that was attacking all the cargo ships?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"They found its dismembered corpse washed out to sea. So Rufus is coming here to sail to Costa Del Sol."

"Yes, we know. It was kinda hard to miss the music."

Evan lit a cigarette and zoned out. He was no chain smoker-you didn't last long in the military if you were, unless you were Cid Highwind- but he did like the effect of breathing a plume of smoke. He was settling in to Junon, after just one day, but he couldn't understand why they were arguing. So the Prez was coming here, what about it? One of the great things about being in with the elite squad was that you were exempt from the rehearsals-you were expected to know what to do. But his squad were terrified that one of the recruits-a boy named Zack- would mess up the parade, to the point that they'd hidden his uniform. So three of the squad-Evan and two others he couldn't remember the name of, plus Nicole, were lying around in the locker room to make sure he didn't find it. Oddly enough, they hadn't said anything of the sort to him. Not that it bothered him. Guard duty in Midgar was nothing _but_ parading around looking impressive.

One of them suddenly put a hand to their ear "The President has arrived."

They looked to Nic, who shrugged and said "He won't find it now. Let's go." Emerging from the locker room, they attempted to look caught by surprise by Rufus' sudden arrival, shouting "He's here he's here!" etc, etc.

A guy with spiked blond hair and Mako eyes was standing in front of the door to the airfield. Not daring to react, Evan ran past him and out to town, skidding to a halt as soon as he was out of eyeshot. The other two soldiers paused, then turned back, one saying "Get to the parade. We'll handle this." over his shoulder. Evan obeyed, just managing to slip into place in the parade before it left. The others'd be late. The parade was easy, after which the people from the elite squad were scheduled to line up in front of the Prez and Heidegger, while the rest of the army hit the barracks. Somehow, Nic and the others made it on time. After Heidegger and Rufus left, the soldiers gathered around to chat.

"What a disaster."

"Heidegger was really irritated."

Nic inclined her head towards the cadet in front of her, and a soldier chimed in "The man in the Black Cape's been roaming the city, but we can't find him."

"Man in a black cape?" the guy asked innocently. You could almost hear his ears pricking.

"He showed up two or three days ago, and killed a few of our soldiers."

"He disappeared right after that. There's a rumour going around that it was Sephiroth" Evan put in subtly.

Nic decided that was enough "Attention! Dismissed." They scattered, except for Nic's recruit. She ran over and said in her best psychotic drill sergeant voice "Hey you! You messing with the army?"

Evan missed his response from where he was lurking, but she responded "You're too lazy! No break for you! Get over here!"

_Oh, that was slick. _

She obviously wasn't going to let him out of her sight while Rufus was here, in case he was a threat to Junon. But she wouldn't have to follow him around now, perhaps raising suspicion.

After he left, the others emerged from various hiding places.

"James, Emma, come with me. I'll need you to keep drilling him till the sendoff. Evan, Jareth, I want you to go find Spike and make sure he's okay. The rest of you are dismissed for now. Well done."

They went their separate ways. Evan and Jareth set about hunting down Spike.

_Emergency over._


	11. Junon, part II

**Junon, II**

Eventually, they found Spike. He was in the barracks, frantically looking for his uniform. With a mouthed 'Follow my lead' Jareth stepped into view.

"How could you do that? Nobody woke me up!"

"Where the fuck were you Spike, you missed the parade!"

"Sorry. Couldn't find the uniform."

"Really? Then why'd you just say 'Nobody woke me up'? God, do you know how much trouble you could've got us in!?"

"..."

"Don't worry about it; we got somebody to cover for you. You might not be so lucky next time." Jareth shot Evan a sharp glance. He hadn't been supposed to say that.

"Look, Spike, we gotta get to the send-off. We'll talk later."

"Hang on, I'll borrow somebody's uniform."

"No time. Sorry, looks like you're gonna have to sit this one out."

"...Okay. Good luck, guys."

They left. Spike stayed, continuing to look for his uniform.

"How much trouble could he have gotten us in?"

"Don't you know? Oh, yeah, you're from Midgar, Sorry. Well not really that much, but he might've got a court–marshal for himself if Mako Eyes hadn't shown up. But for showing up the garrison on Shinra TV might have landed him in the gas chamber, depending on what mood Heidegger was in. Who knows?"

"Hmm...What time is the sendoff?

"About now. Don't worry, we don't have to be there until after, to report on whether Spike's okay or not. I lied."

"Why? Spike was with us when Sephiroth came out of that alley, he'd understand, wouldn't he?"

"Yeah. But he'd want to see for himself, and might have given us away to Mako Eyes."

"Ah."

At this point, they'd almost reached the docks, and could hear Rufus saying "-done. Keep up the good work for Shinra Inc."

Silence for a time, then "Once the word gets out that Sephiroth's here, Cloud and his friends will show up too."

"How did he find out about that?" Jareth whispered, startled.

"Tracked him by the implant, probably." Evan answered without thinking, earning himself a confused stare. They resumed listening as Heidegger said "Leave it up to me, sir! Gya haa ha!"

"I thought I told you to stop that stupid laugh..."

"Gya..."

Evan smiled. Whatever else about Rufey, he had at least one redeeming quality. No tolerance for maniacal laughter. Hojo wouldn't last another day.

A horn blew, and a few seconds later Nic's voice said "Alright! Dismissed."

"That was close." Emma's voice.

"Heidegger's been really edgy lately." James.

"Because Hojo disappeared, leaving a letter of resignation." Emma.

Out of sight, Evan frowned. He hadn't heard that.

"Heidegger's been forced to take care of that investigation too." James.

"Hey! I thought you were dismissed!" Nicole

Running feet, and the door opened, Emma and James came out, stopping when they saw the others. Nic remained for some last words with Mako Eyes, who was the same Spikehead Evan had seen in the train station at the no. 1 reactor. She came out. Spikehead did not. After a count to ten, she re-opened the doors.

"Yep, looks like he's on the boat. Better stay here til it leaves just in case."

"Aren't you going to warn people? The President's on that boat." The voice was similar to Jareth's.

"And how is he going to get anywhere near the Prez? Rufus won't be wandering around unguarded. Now Mako Eyes is out of my hair and Sephiroth has no reason to be pissed off with us. People will be...inquisitive as to why we didn't report it immediately. You got a deathwish?"

"A good answer," said the similar-to-Jareth-voice. Sephiroth suddenly materialized from a shadow Evan could have sworn couldn't hide a chameleon, "and thanks for the service. Sorry Mother tried to kill you, Evan."

"How do you-"

"It's stamped on your uniform. Honestly, the intellect of Shinra soldiers today! Who's in charge of SOLDIER now?"

"A guy named Alexander."

"Alex? Really? That explains that. Hmm...Anyway, thanks again. Come on, Mother."

Sephiroth picked up Jenova and walked aboard. The horn blew again and the ship pulled out.

"Pretty traumatic for a first day, isn't it?" Evan glanced up. Nic was talking to him.

"I guess so. Not every day you perform in a parade, get attacked by an escaped 2,000 year old specimen, talk to a living legend and live to tell the tale. I hope it gets more boring from here-on in?"

"We can hope. Come on, we owe you a drink."


	12. The Gold Saucer

The next two days passed in blissful boredom. A Junon girl tried to strike up a relationship with Evan and he accepted, not because he particularly liked her but because he suspected she was an assassin, a surmise that turned out to be correct. People knew about him, and generally avoided him in case of guilt by association. It ended badly. She tried to kill him, and he wound up breaking her arm in five places and tossing her off the pier.

Apart from that small hiccup (and what did that say about his life, that he barely noticed somebody trying to kill him), nothing much happened. He began to settle in to the Junon garrison, and actually started thinking maybe he'd be okay. But it wasn't long before what he'd come to think of as 'the Evan Factor' kicked in.

On the evening of the third day, he was called to the Mayor of Junon's office and told he'd impressed the Prez _so much_ by surviving Fort Condor that he'd been asked to step in as a temporary member of the Presidential Guard. Typical. You climb out of a meat grinder, and they find a more efficient one.

Which is how he found himself in the Gold Saucer with the other replacement troops from Junon, listening to Rufus briefing them on exactly what his duties were. He was mildly surprised to find nothing too dangerous involved, but remained skeptical. If that was so true, what had happened to the previous presidential guard? He was even more surprised to find Rufus telling them exactly that.

"You may be wondering, if your duties are so simple, what has happened to the last Presidential Guard? I'm well aware of the cynical nature of most Shinra employees. It makes them better workers. You don't have to believe me if you don't want to, and frankly, I don't care, as long as you do what I pay you for. But, just in case, this is what happened.

"When I left Midgar, Hojo practically begged me to bring along his...newest model...of the Presidential Guard. They were built to be loyal, unstoppable, and obedient. By the time I'd reached the Gold Saucer, their constant vigilance was beginning to get on my nerves, so I told them to take an evening off, except for the two survivors. Wishing to avoid an international incident, I explicitly ordered them not to hurt anyone, but forgot to mention 'except in self defense.' So when that psychopath got into Battle square and started shooting, they just stood there and took it til they died. That's why you're here, to make up the numbers. Any questions?"

Nobody spoke. They were all trying to think his story through, checking for holes. It was plausible. Hojo probably could fuck up people enough that this would happen. Rufus' details corresponded with what the Shinra Times and the Gold Saucer staff said, although that didn't mean much. You didn't stay President for long by being careless. But one question remained, and one of the other recruits finally asked it.

"So where's this psychopath now?"

"AVALANCHE killed him when they passed through."

"They were here!!?"

"Yes. The only reason I stopped here was to drop off 'a package' for them. Any other questions?"

Nobody spoke.

"Okay. Be back here tomorrow by this time. Until then, you're free to do as you wish. Don't kill anyone." He had been walking away while saying this, but stopped at the door, theatrically slapping his forehead. "I'm not about to make that mistake again. You kill somebody; you'd better have a very compelling reason for it, okay? Dismissed."


	13. Rocket Town

**Rocket Town**

Lurking inside the Inn, Evan tried to look alert. There was something infinitely boring about Guarding the President. And he knew what it was. The creature across from him had been...built to obey orders to the letter, and Rufus had said "Be quiet. We don't want to scare Cid, so stay out of sight. One guard is enough. Emerge only if you see a direct threat to me or on my order." So the rest of Rufey's bodyguard were hidden in buildings around the town, and guess who'd drawn the short straw? That's right. So Evan had been paired with the only bodyguard who remained at attention at all times, shouted "Silence!" every time he tried to speak, and would report him if he did anything less. The inn's clientele were just about stopping themselves from outright laughter.

Palmer...bounced...in through the door to Cid's house. There was no other word to describe it. A few seconds later, Cid emerged.

"So...when's the Space program gonna start up again?" For most people, this was a much too casual way to talk to the President, but Cid had earned it. Besides, he'd removed all his usual expletives, which was almost unprecedented.

"It's not."

"What the...You got me all excited for nothing? Then, what'd you come here for?"

Evan stared, fascinated. Cid could leave his mouth open for several seconds while speaking without once displacing his cigarette. It seemed to stick to his lip without any kind of support. By the time Evan had refocused, Rufus was saying "-because of Shinra Inc. that you were able to fly in the first place."

"What!?" The cigarette didn't budge.

"Well, if you prefer, you can fly us there yourself. We're headed to the Temple of The Ancients."

"What? Where's that?" Cid wasn't stupid. He didn't want to lose his plane, but he knew going after Sephiroth might be dangerous.

Evan zoned out again after he realized the next couple of hours would just be meaningless negotiation. Cid was going to lose his plane, whether he liked it or not.

After several minutes of this, they were interrupted as a plane (Cid's) swooped down. Cid started running as soon as he saw it. When he saw who was piloting it, Rufus screamed "Bring it down!" and drew his shotgun. As the rest of his bodyguard emerged from various buildings around the town, and the visible one was filling the air with bullets, Rufus fired twice. The first shot hit the ground just ahead of Cid, and the second struck the plane on the tail just before Cid leapt on board and the plane flew out of range. It was a beautiful shot, but whether it was luck or skill no one ever found out.

Disgusted, Rufus reloaded to full capacity.

"Do we follow?" One of the bodyguards, probably a human, as the constructs would not dare to suggest anything.

"No. There's no way we can keep up with them. I wonder where Cloud learned how to fly a plane? Palmer said it takes...Palmer!" And then he was running towards Cid's house, his bodyguards trailing behind him.

They found Palmer lying in the back yard of Cid's house, almost bloodless. A truck with a Shinra logo on it was nearby. The truck driver, when he saw the guards, leveled a gun of some sort and fired once before he was riddled. The bullet sliced across Rufus' upper arm and whirred past Evan's ear.

The rescue chopper got there within minutes. Palmer had bled a lot and had several broken ribs, but he'd survive. Rufus looked around.

"I wonder who he was aiming at, me or..." He trailed off, but Evan thought his eyes flicked to him before he turned away.

"...Anyway, we've no reason to stay now that we've lost our plane. Let's go."

- - - - - - - - - - -

_I really hate this chapter. I did an awful job on it._


	14. Keystone

**Keystone**

Back at The Gold Saucer, in one of Dio's private suites for high ranking Shinra employees, Evan flicked through Cloud's Shinra file. Rufus had returned to Midgar, along with most of the guards, but Evan and James from the Junon garrison were staying because of some assignment Tseng needed them for. All they'd been told was that it was possible they'd have a confrontation with AVALANCHE. So they were reading up on their files, for want of anything better to do.

"Cloud V. Strife," Evan recited aloud, "former MP class A. Age: 21. Weapon: Sword. How is this supposed to help? If he's advancing on me waving that huge sword, I don't have time to recite his family history, even if it'd somehow stop him, which it won't."

"I know. Listen to this, it'd be funny if it wasn't so depressing.

Name: Sephiroth Crescent.

Age: 29

Occupation: Former General of SOLDIER

Number: GSA0001"

"GSA? I'm not familiar with that." GMS were Shinra low ranking combat staff, GAI were special units like Administrative Research or SOLDIER, but he'd never heard of GSA.

"It's unique to Sephiroth. Gave him almost as much power as the Execs."

"What's so depressing about his file?"

"Listen to the rest. It lists his achievements. Battle of Rocket Town. Battle of Fort Condor. Siege of the Canyons. And about twenty more."

"Decorations?"

"Hmmm...actually, not that many. Two Purple Hearts, a Shinra Cross, and a posthumous Silver Star."

"What's the last one for?"

"Killing almost all the witnesses who saw him start the fire in Nibelheim, so it was possible to cover up."

"..."

"Still, he hasn't got that many decorations for his time in service, so maybe we have a chance."

"He's not over decorated. That's NOT good news. It means he's smart, he doesn't take risks unless he has to. BUT he also has some decorations, which means that when he DOES have to take those risks, he will. He's not over cautious or suicidal, which makes a good general. And a reputation for being the best fighter in history doesn't help either. Remind me again, why are we doing this?"

Because," said Tseng from behind him, who had an amazingly silent walk when he wanted to, "the President ordered it, and what the president orders, we obey. Shinra policy dictates that at least four people enter possibly hostile territory, which is why you're tagging along. Normally I'd take Reno and Rude, but after they and Elena get back from their vacation I've been ordered to send them to Midgar to explain why they didn't kill AVALANCHE in that incident in Gongaga. So it's me, Elena, and you two."

"Why us? I mean specifically. I was told you asked for us by name."

"Because you've shown your talent for surviving at Fort Condor."

"Couldn't you just order me to guard some safe but useless place so I can stop exercising my surviving skills so much?"

"No. But calm down. We can't get into the temple until AVALANCHE finds the keystone, and by that time the others might be back from Midgar. So you might be safe."

'_Calm down' When A Turk says that it's time to panic..._

"What if they don't find it?" James finally spoke

"They will. Eventually, Aeris will remember to ask the planet for help."

"So if he's good at surviving, why am I here?"

"You've a reputation as an excellent soldier. Do you remember when you took your entrance exam to the Shinra army? Question 29 was 'You're standing in a room with two doors and two guards. One door is the exit, the other one leads to certain death. One guard speaks only truth, the other speaks only lies. What question do you ask?' You answered 'Go up to the smallest guard, put a gun to his head and say "Which door do I go through? And I'd think very carefully about my answer because You're going through first! I know you might be a compulsive liar so just point." You were the only person in Shinra history to get the correct answer-except myself. That attitude is invaluable."

"..."

"You've at least a couple of days before we have to do anything. Shinra's paying your expenses, so enjoy yourselves."

- - - - - -

A week later, Elena, Rude, and Reno got back from Wutai. They were very closemouthed about what happened there, something which clearly worried Tseng, but he didn't ask them a direct question. They spent the next day complaining loudly that the Gold Saucer had no bar, before Reno and Rude were sent on to Midgar. That night, when Evan was about to go try some snowboarding in Wonder Square, on Reno's recommendation, Tseng caught him at the door.

"Not tonight. AVALANCHE are in the building."

"So? I've only met Cloud, and I was masked at the time."

"We might need to leave quickly. You remember that Keystone I was talking about?"

"Yeah."

"It was here the whole time. In Dio's private collection. I almost killed the man when he told me AVALANCHE had it."

"So what happens now?"

"We've an agent in AVALANCHE. He'll take care of it. But we'll need to leave the instant we have the stone, so no amusements tonight. Can you fly a helicopter?"

"Nope."

"Right. Go find James and Elena and tell them to report to the helipad overlooking Chocobo Square."

"Yessir."

He found James and Elena watching some weird play involving a dragon., a beautiful princess in a pink dress, and Spikehead, currently known as the Legendary Hero Alfred. They left, and met Tseng at the helipad, and hung around for about ten minutes doing nothing, until Tseng suddenly said, at no signal Evan could discern, "Okay, he's on the move. Let's go."

With Elena piloting the helicopter, they hovered over Chocobo Square for a few more minutes, until a cat riding a stuffed mog bounced past, with Spikehead and Girl In Pink Dress(as she wasn't Tifa, and had been with Spikehead in that play, Evan assumed this was Aeris) in hot pursuit. A couple of seconds later the Mog ran back out, and Elena swooped low. Mog tossed something up to Tseng, who almost dropped it, but caught it with the tips of his fingers and signaled Elena to fly away. She obliged, and they left the Mog to Spikehead (Despite now knowing his name, Evan's subconscious still thought of him as Spikehead). Looking back, he saw the Mog talking to his pursuers fairly amiably. Odd. If he was Spikehead, he'd have drawn that big sword and cut the traitor in half. Then they were lost to view.


	15. Temple of the Ancients

**Temple of the Ancients**

Once they finally reached it, the Temple of The Ancients proved almost anticlimactic. A big stone pyramid, with a door at the top. The door entered a room with absolutely no exits from it. Wonderful. It was about half an hour before the figured out how to get in (painstakingly re assembling the altar, which had mysteriously shattered, and then placing the Keystone in the slot at the top), during which some interesting conversations sprung up out of boredom. Take this one, for example. They'd assembled over half the altar (when put in place, the pieces instantly merged, but it was still painstaking work) when Tseng suddenly burst out, "This is pointless. We don't have much of a lead on Aeris, and if this keeps up, they'll be here before we're done."

"Who's this Aeris you keep talking about?" James asked without much interest, his attention on the door, watching in case another Kelzmelzer snuck up on them. The last one had been a close thing, but they'd all brought several antidotes, so it had turned out okay.

"The last surviving Ancient. She's one of Cloud's team." Elena answered equally absently, but for some reason with a slight edge to her voice.

Something clicked inside Evan's head. "She...was in the Shinra building, wasn't she? One of Hojo's specimens."

"Yup. AVALANCHE rescued her. How did you know that?"

"You didn't think Shinra could keep it a secret, did you?" Evan said enigmatically, not wanting to piss off Reno. Quickly changing the subject, he said, "So what was Hojo doing with her?"

"Nobody knows."

Tseng's face assumed the careful blankness of one hiding either rage, fear, or laughter, and he turned to face them.

"He was trying to interbreed her with the last Cosmo Canyonite, Red 13, to create a resilient Ancient specimen that could withstand tests for a long time."

Evan was struck dumb. It was widely acknowledged (although anyone who got too careless with their views were mysteriously found in dark alleys the next day, in pieces, or worse) within the company that Hojo would stop at nothing in the name of science, but surely even Shinra's lucrative biochemical research regulators could not allow this. This was just...wrong. From the little he'd seen of her during that play, he remembered an eternally cheerful expression wrapped in a pink dress.

"Did he succeed?"

"No. AVALANCHE burst in and mauled him enough he nearly died." Was he imagining it, or was there just a hint of satisfaction in that? Probably not. Tseng wouldn't have survived as long as he had if he was so open with his emotions.

Some time later with their lead on AVALANCHE decreasing steadily, the completed assembling the altar and placed the Keystone in the slot. It glowed blue, and they were treated to the extremely unsettling experience of sinking through solid rock, emerging in a complicated maze which defied logic. But, since now navigating it was their only way out of the Temple, they set out. And, as complicated as it looked,it wasn't long before they found the right door. Which led to a narrow path with...some bizarre purple thing standing at the end. With what seemed to be glee, the purple thing said "Nyum nyum...Nyum" and suddenly boulders were rolling towards them along the path.

"Any volunteers to go first?" Tseng asked.

Silence. Muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "Fucking Pragmatic Shinra mentality!" he darted into the path of the first boulder. After several gut wrenching near misses, he made it to the end of the path and held up the very surprised purple thing at gunpoint. The boulders instantly vanished, and Elena, James and Evan were able to approach.

"Keep an eye on this guy. Don't let him get away."

"What is it?"

"An ancient. Over time, they've lost the ability to speak. They guard the temple."

"How do you know so much about this place?"

"...A woman named Ifalna wrote a book. She'd never been here, but she'd heard of it. Now shut up and keep your mind on what we're doing, okay?"

"Sorry, sir."

The next room was a weird thing shaped like a clock. A voice spoke _inside their heads _and suddenly they were able to move the clock's hands by thinking about it.

"We need to go to six o clock." Tseng said, and they eventually got the hang of it enough to get there. But the Blue Thing escaped. With no warning whatsoever, it broke free of Evan's grip halfway across and jumped into space, almost pulling the Shinra soldiers in after it.

"Sorry, sir."

"Nothing to be done about it now. We may as well keep going."

Soon afterwards, they found their way to a room with murals on the walls. Tseng kicked the doors. They swung open _much_ too easily for doors that were in a centuries old abandoned building.

"James, Evan, guard this door. Make sure the Ancient Guardians don't try locking us in."

"Yessir."

"Sir."

Meanwhile, Tseng and Elena entered the room. Elena wandered off down towards the plinth at the end, while Tseng studied the murals closely. This continued for some time.

"So what do you think those murals mean?" Evan looked up. Tseng was asking them.

"'Please give generously to the temple of the Ancients roof repair fund?''Tseng, Elena, and James collapsed laughing. When they stopped, there were four Ancient Dragons in the room.

Evan and James took down the first one quickly, but they both took wounds. A grenade flew from Elena's sleeve, but the Dragon she hit counterattacked with a forelimb slash that knocked her off her feet. Rolling upright, she cast a spell of some sort on another dragon, which then attacked the Dragon that had attacked her originally and killed it. Another grenade, combined with Evan and James shooting from behind, quickly brought down the survivor.

As for Tseng, he just drew his gun and fired once. The shot tore a hole the size of a fist through the Dragon and it dissolved into red ash. And that was that.

"Everyone okay?" asked Tseng, tossing around Hi-potions.

"Yeah."

"Mmmm."

"I guess."

"Listen, you all go and report to the President. Tell him that we've found some murals that'll probably be helpful, if we can decipher them. We'll need a team of Hojo's cryptanalysts and probably some of Reeve's Cetra Architecture specialists. Plus and armed escort, preferably 2nd Class SOLDIER."

"What about you?" Elena hadn't moved.

"I can defend myself better than you, so I'll stay here until they arrive. Can I borrow some of your S-Mines, in case the Ancients try to lock me in?"

"Okay. But what if Sephiroth's here?"

"I have...means of protecting myself against Sephiroth." Tseng's finger's brushed his coat pocket. _That'll be the remote for Sephiroth's implants. Let's hope he gives you time to use it. _"Besides, Sephiroth might not even be here. He's probably waiting for Cloud."

"Oh, he was here all right." All eyes turned to James.

"How can you tell?" Tseng snapped angrily. James pointed. Scratched into one of the murals on the wall next to the door was the legend 'SEPHIROTH WOZ ERE'. That put an end to conversation.

- - - - - -

_That thing about Aeris breeding with red 13 was actually hinted at in game, so I don't want angry Aeris fans howling for my head, okay? Hojo says 'That's why we're thinking of breeding her to ensure we have a specimen that can withstand our research for a long time' and then in Cosmo Canyon Bugenhagen says 'Nanaki's race have incredible longevity'. please review._


	16. Conversations

Of course, duty called, and Tseng did not allow himself to remain distracted for long.

"What was I saying?"

"' I have...means of protecting myself against Sephiroth.'"

"Thank you, Evan, but you didn't need to imitate my dramatic pause. Anyway, once you're out of the temple and have the transmission sent, stay where you are. If I'm not out by dawn, you know what to do. Come get me!!"

Evan started laughing so hard he had to hold on to the doorframe. That was such an unTsenglike comment. Smiling at their expressions, Tseng said "What, you were expecting, 'Run, save yourselves!'? I'm a realist. If you tell Shinra soldiers to run and save themselves, that's exactly what they'll do. Get going before Cloud gets here."

"Yessir."

"Um...Elena, stay a moment, would you?" She shrugged and walked back down to the plinth at the end of the room. Evan and James walked out and took up station beside the doors, staring into space with ears pricked. Tseng wasn't normally hesitant, so whatever they'd be talking about would probably be interesting. Personally, Evan had his money on him asking her out. He knew the signs. Whether she liked it or not, that girl had her claws in him good. Noticing their too blank expressions, Tseng shut the doors, reinforcing Evan's suspicions. He'd have to watch to see how it turned out. Might be entertaining...

A couple of minutes later, Elena emerged, flushed but grinning. She recovered quickly, though. As you'd expect. She had not been promoted to an officer in the Turks through favoritism. She was good at her job; she just still hadn't got a handle on the Turk attitude yet. Although she could be reduced to incoherent murmurs or meaningless babble by a word from Reno or Rude or –God forbid- a glance from Tseng, she was much more composed among the rank and file.

And so they set out. The Walkways in the Clock Room were now fixed at 6 and twelve, so they walked across, to be confronted by a room with a door in it. A _locked_ door. Elena put her hand on it.

"That's weird...it's warm..."

Then a monster began growing out of the wall. Elena ran back to gain room to fight. The monster glared at them.

**WHO ARE YOU AND WHY DO YOU COME TO ME?**

"Um...James Donellan, GMS 453...sir?"

"...Evan Shinra."

**AND YOU, GIRL?**

Elena scratched her head with her left hand. "Well, it's actually pretty complicated..." Something struck Evan about that gesture, but he couldn't think what. James stepped smartly backward as a stalactite fell from the roof and smashed on the ground in front of him.

"...because I'm a foundling...sort of..." She waved a hand to illustrate her point, and Evan had a sudden flashback to back in the Mural Chamber, and her throwing that grenade.

_Wait a second...she's right handed! So she's using her left hand now...why?_

He was sure he was right. It was a habit of most soldiers to note which hand somebody used. It could save your life. So she was making the monster follow her left hand because...

The explosion blew the doors off their hinges. They began repairing themselves almost instantly, but not before Elena, James, and Evan were outside them. The monster screamed in frustration.

**RIGHT! ****NEXT TIME, ATTACK FIRST, QUESTION LATER**! They kept running, and soon were out of earshot and waiting at the foot of the Temple.

After a time, Elena turned to Evan and said "You're Evan Shinra?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"_The _Evan Shinra?"

"...Well, _A _Evan Shinra. Which one are you looking for?"

"Never mind. I thought I ran into a friend of yours a while back, that's all."

"Oh." Evan relaxed and focused his attention back on the surrounding forest.

"You know a guy named Vito Corneo?"

"_What!?_"

Elena laughed. "I ran into him yesterday."

"That's impossible! At that range, a shotgun should have blown his fucking head off!"

Evan's mind spun. He'd seen the bullet enter the Don's skull, and he'd used a shotgun. Even a Phoenix Down couldn't repair that much damage. But...

"That's right. Didn't you wonder why it didn't?"

"I may have been _slightly_ wound up at the time."

"Okay, point taken. Anyway, the Don's thugs carry weapons that look like shotguns but aren't. Shinra wouldn't give him a permit. They're actually pistols modified to look like shotguns to scare the masses. You did kill him, but a scavenging team found him floating face down in the sewer and fished him out. Heidegger ordered him revived for interrogation, but he escaped."

"Oh. So what happened to him? Where is he now?"

"Calm down, he's dead. Permanently this time. Fell off a cliff."

"Are you sure? He's tougher than he looks."

"I'm sure. By the time we got down, most of him had been eaten by the local monster population."

"How'd you get to meet him, anyway?" Corneo only did one type of business with women. Even Scarlet stepped lightly when she visited the Honey Bee Inn (they catered to female customers too, leading to hilarious circumstances and a great deal of diplomacy when attached people encountered their partners there). But Elena didn't seem to be that kind of person. Besides, she wouldn't need to. Turks got well paid. Guessing his thoughts, the laughter left her eyes.

"He kidnapped me and tied me to a cliff wall."

"Hence you pushed him off said cliff?"

"Good guess, but no..." She gave him a look that said 'If you take this any further I will have to lie.' Evan understood. Whatever had happened, it was against Shinra regulations. Happy to hear that he didn't have to worry about the Don, he respected that.

"By the way, Ree told me to say hi if I met you."

"Ree?" Evan responded stupidly, his mind full of visions of vengeful ghosts of lecherous crime bosses.

"Riana? Tall, pretty, brown hair, blue eyes? Ring any bells?"

"How does she know I'm alive?"

"Your success at Fort Condor was in the paper."

"Ah, so that explains the string of assassins."

"What? You think Ree tried to kill you?"

"Of course not! But now the brothels know I'm alive, and I cost them a lot of money by shooting the Don."

"He'd have been arrested anyway."

"They won't care."

"Hmm...Ree'll be happy to hear how quickly that 'Of course not!' came."

"...tell her I said hi."

"Will do."

What the hell are you talking about?" They turned. James was standing behind them, looking completely confused.

"All the people who are trying to kill Evan."

"Including his girlfriend?"

"Ex- girlfriend."

"Ooh, she won't like hearing _that._ Found somebody else already?"

"Are you kidding? Any girl who comes near me might be a brothel worker looking for a bonus! But I can hardly keep it going, considering I can't go back to Midgar for the next couple of years."

"I guess you're right."

Conversation tapered off. Until...

"It's dawn. Time to go back inside."

"How? Tseng has the keystone."

"That sneaky bastard! He knew we wouldn't be able to get back in, and that's why he told us to come back for him. He must've been given instructions from headquarters on what to do inside, but it was too secret to tell us!"

"With respect, ma'am, sounds exactly like something he'd think of." Their earlier conversation made him inclined to trust Elena. He'd known she looked familiar! She was one of Ree's best friends!

"Yep, pure Tseng. So what're we gonna do?

There followed several minutes of animated discussion, until they were interrupted by voices rising from the trees.

"Are you sure this is the right place? If you're leading us wrong, cat..." Cloud

"What? You'll kill me? And what would happen to Marlene then?" Unknown voice.

"He's not. I can feel it." Female voice, probably Aeris.

Evan and James looked to Elena. She mouthed 'Hide!' looking stressed. They reached the trees just before Cloud, Aeris, and...Tifa? That made no sense. Then he saw Cloud putting the PHS back into his pocket. He must've had it on loudspeaker.

"So what do we do?" Evan whispered, ducking behind a tree as AVALANCHE ran inside.

"We're going in."

So they did. They found AVALANCHE had disappeared, but Tseng was leaning against a pillar, unconscious. Shrugging out of her jacket, Elena ripped the sleeves off her shirt and bandaged him with them, then did likewise with Tseng's shirt.

"Heidegger's gonna kill me. These uniforms don't come cheap."

"It's been done with a blade," James noted, inspecting the wound, " A single swipe..."

"Sephiroth?"

"He said he could defend himself against Sephiroth. Must've been Cloud."

"In that space of time? Without making any noise?" Evan asked doubtfully.

"This is serious, guys. We can't just give him a Hi-potion, or we could seal a rib in his lung or worse. He needs trained Shinra medics."

"They won't be here for hours, James, even if we called this second. By then he'll be dead."

"If we can get him to the helicopter, I can keep him alive til we can get to hospital."

"What? You're not supposed to move somebody whose hurt, I know that much."

"If we don't move him, he's dead."

"Okay. Ma'am? Ma'am?" Elena, who had remained silent after her initial comments, looked up. "You have any painkillers with you?"

"No. I could use that thing I used against the Dragon in the Murals Chamber, but..."

"But what?"

"It makes the victim fall hopelessly in love with me, at least temporarily. But if he's in a fragile state of mind, the effects could be permanent."

"Well, only one way to find out." Bending low top Tseng's ear, Evan whispered into it "What do you think we should do, professor Hojo?"

" 'Be careful! I don't want my new specimen damaged! Turks make durable test subjects! As Vincent Valentine found out! Ahahahahaha!'" Elena chimed in. It was a Hojo impression, and so good that Evan actually looked around in alarm. Tseng jerked upright, screamed, but managed to fire at Elena three times before collapsing.

"Shit! Didn't think of that! You okay, Ma'am?"

"Yeah. He missed. So he's okay?"

"Yeah. Cast your spell."

Elena obliged. Tseng's eyes misted over.

"Can you stand, sir?"

"For you." He stood, supported by Evan and James, and staggered out of the temple, with Elena walking backwards down the steps just in front of him.

"Good boy, almost there. Come on now."

"Did anyone ever tell you how beautiful you were?"

"Apart from you just now? I don't think so, sir." she replied, directing 'if you say anything about this to anybody you'll be found dismembered in an alley somewhere' stares at the grinning Shinra soldiers.

And so on. When they got to the bottom of the steps, she leaned into him, careful to avoid touching his injured side, and flicked him lightly in the forehead to break her spell, but not before he'd stolen a kiss. Flushing, she ran into the forest to get the helicopter.

"Fuck, what a day." Evan lowered Tseng to the ground gently, and sat down on the bottom step

"Yeah. You think we'll get a bonus for this?"

"I wouldn't count on it."

- - -

_Sorry about the delay. I wanted to get all the Temple of the Ancients pieces done before I posted the first one. The dialogue can be hard to follow. So what do you think. This is one of my favourite chapters._


	17. Guard Duty

**Guard Duty**

When Tseng had been airlifted to Junon, he'd immediately gone into the operating chamber and stayed there for thirteen hours in a critical condition. It had been two days since then, which Evan had spent re-acquainting himself with garrison rat duty and avoiding all important looking Shinra officials, because the HBI would be using all its influence, which was considerable, to see him sent somewhere dangerous, or, failing that, somewhere isolated so their assassins could get to him. So far, he'd been successful. Now, Tseng was due to be evaluated. If the surgery hadn't worked, the HBI would probably try to convince Shinra it was Evan's fault and get him executed. If Tseng died, he wanted to know fast, so he could make a quick getaway. Which was why he was visiting the man today. His Ward was high in the Shinra compound, which meant he ran the risk of being accosted by officials, but that couldn't be helped.

When he walked into the room, a doctor was telling Elena "...but he should be okay if you keep him to non-combat duty over the next few months...". Elena looked up, saw Evan and crouched, grenades falling into her hands from her sleeves. Long divested of his weapons by the compound's guards, Evan just stood there, until she recognized his face and relaxed. Despite this, the doctor left in a hurry. Evan walked over to the bed, keeping his hands in full view as best he could.

"So how's he doing?"

"Okay. Where have you been? I've had people looking everywhere for you!"

_Fuck. __Here comes another dangerous assignment. I'm getting real tired of this..._

"Why's that, ma'am?"

"Well, as soon as the Highwind is ready, we're going after Sephiroth to the North Cave."

_Oh great. The most dangerous place on the planet. I can hardly wait._

"We?" Elena noted the lack of the honorific.

"Me, the rest of the Turks, all the Shinra execs and an armed escort. And I have to go, so Tseng'll be unguarded. Turks make a lot of enemies during their career. And I've been so impressed by your actions in the temple that you'll have to stay behind and guard him."

Evan could have kissed her. In fact, he almost did, but restrained himself on the basis that the last thing he needed was another enemy. Guarding Tseng might be dangerous, but it'd surely be a hell of a lot safer than getting caught between Sephiroth, AVALANCHE, and your own superiors.

"Can I borrow some of your grenades, ma'am? If there is assassins, they'll be armoured."

"Sure. Be here when we leave."

"Thank you, ma'am." She knew it wasn't just for the grenades. He made for the door.

"Oh, Evan?"

"Mmmm?"

"What'd you think of my Hojo impression?" Evan whirled, startled, eyes searching the room. That was a dangerous thing to say aloud in a Shinra compound. But, she couldn't implicate him without destroying herself as well, and surely she wouldn't have said it if she thought they'd be overheard.

"...Almost perfect. You forgot to say 'I am a genius!'." He was gone before she could reply.

- - - - - - - - -

Later, he reported to Tseng's ward for duty. Tseng had regained consciousness the day before, but still slept for long periods. It was the easiest assignment he'd had in years. He just sat in a chair playing solitaire for two hours, until he got bored of that and looked through the bookcase next to Tseng's bed, which had been brought from Tseng's home. They all seemed to be titles like _The Planet's Pulse _or _Secrets of the Lifestream._ Evan picked up the latter and opened it at a random page. The chapter title was Cycle of Souls.

**In the beginning, the cycle was endless. Souls were born, died, and returned to the planet to be born again. Then humanity discovered that by the application of Phoenix feathers, the dead could be wrested from the lifestream and forced back into their fragile shells, provided the shell was not irreparably damaged. And the cycle of souls was interrupted. The Planet spoke onto them, and those that came to be known as the Cetra scorned the use of the Phoenix, and cast those who would from their tents. The Exiles, as they came to be known, built dwellings and farmed upon the planet's fragile skin. And they multiplied, and came to clash with the Cetra, who although individually more powerful, lacked numbers.**** Then the Crisis(see pages 161 to 215) came and both Exiles and Cetra united to defeat it, the Cetra forced to use the Phoenix down or be obliterated. And the Crisis was defeated. But the cycle of souls was now almost stagnant, and the planet fought back. Thereafter, the shells of some souls dissolved after death. Although, as the planet could not seek out every thread in the lifestream, some remained, and there were a certain few, whom the planet deemed essential to its survival, who it was always possible to restore.**

He was about to read on, but he happened to glance up, and saw Tseng watching him, awake and coherent.

"I believe that is mine."

"Yes, sir." He saluted and handed him the book.

"What are you doing here?"

"Protection, sir."

Tseng grinned. "Whose? Yours or mine?"

"I'm assuming it's yours, sir. I was told that you were unguarded and to report here today."

"Is it a challenging assignment?"

"Is this a trick question, sir?"

"Hah! Well done. Here, take the book-I won't be needing it and you still have a few hours of work left. I think-" He cut off as a mild earthquake shook the building. Nothing serious. A window pane cracked at most. But in Junon there were no earthquakes. Except for a warning broadcast from the Highwind a few minutes later, nobody would have noticed. Then the alarms went off.

* * *

_Sorry about the delay. I had to play through the game until I got to the temple of the Ancients to find out how long Cloud was knocked out for before he woke up in Gongaga. Guess what? It's never mentioned_! 


	18. The Planet's Defense

Evan was half out of his chair before he hesitated. Ignoring an alarm was a serious offense...but so was deserting an assigned post. He looked to Tseng, who shrugged.

"Go ahead. Now that I'm awake, I should be able to take down any assassins that bother to come. Which they won't. Any assassins able to get this far into a secure Shinra facility would murder Rufus instead."

"Yes, sir." He left. Exactly three minutes and fifty seven seconds later, he met up with the rest of his unit, lined up on the street with rocket launchers. Emma gave him one. and he took his place.

"Right!" Nic screamed in her 'psychotic drill sergeant' voice. "You all know what to do-I hope. If you don't, you're too stupid to live anyway. Ranks of three, fire on command. Anyone who fires a shell before my command will have to swim out and get it back, got that?"

"Where's our target? What happened?" James asked, frowning.

"All I know is that there are four huge monsters called Weapons wandering around. Two of them are trying to break a barrier Sephiroth's put around the north cave, and the other two are chasing the Highwind, which is coming here. Hence the alarms. Heidegger sent a message ahead."

That got everyone's attention, and they all began scanning the horizon. The afternoon crawled by, with everyone on a knife edge, simultaneously wishing the Highwind would hurry up and that it would never arrive. Nobody got bored or sleepy. They just stood there, watching and waiting, on the deserted street. The civilians had gotten wind of it, and nobody was venturing outside.

"It's the waiting that's the worst part." Spike said nervously after a while.

"You think so? I've always found that the time when nobody is actively trying to kill you is usually the best part." Nic said mildly. "But then, you know all about this sort of thing, right? You are almost seventeen, after all."

Spike blushed, and returned his attention to the horizon. He frowned. "Is that a grey speck on the horizon? Dead ahead, next to that funny shaped cloud that looks like a turtle."

"I think this is it, guys." Nic said after a moment. "Get ready."

Soon they could all see the approaching airship, followed closely by two huge monsters. One was green and bulky with fins, moving slowly but with a sense of inexorability about its advance, like a wall getting nearer. The other was similar to a dragon, with six limbs, and a tail. There was something odd about the way it was flying. It was flapping its (relatively) tiny wings, but that seemed as much for show as anything else. It seemed more to be floating, the way you did when a Float spell was cast on you, but mobile.

Sister Ray groaned into position. But it couldn't fire. The Highwind was between it and the monsters, which were gradually getting closer. They were now close enough to make out the terrified soldiers firing on their pursuers from the deck of the airship. Admittedly as indistinct blue shapes but that in itself was to close for comfort.

Seconds passed. They were now _very _close. The flying Weapon began charging a projectile of some sort. Aimed not at the Highwind but at the command tower of Junon. It had realized the cannon was a threat. If they were to fire, it had to be now. But the Highwind still blocked their field of fire. Time slowed to a crawl, and then everything happened at once

-The Highwind took a sharp turn to the left-

-Sister Ray roared-

-Weapon swerved out of the way and released his projectile-

-The regular firepower opened their account-

-One unlucky soldier screamed as he fell through the air, caught off guard by the sudden swerve of the airship-

-Still firing, he hit the swimming Weapon in some sort of vulnerable spot, probably an eye-

-The swimming weapon reared up in pain-

- the Sister Ray shell hit it squarely in the chest-

-Thrown off by his sudden swerve just before he fired, the flying Weapon's projectile missed Junon, causing a huge explosion in the land behind it-

-the gunfire cut off as though somebody had cast a silence spell on it.

The swimming weapon halted. Sister Ray followed its movement. It hesitated, considering. Sister Ray would need to be reloaded before it could fire, but the weapon didn't know that. Slowly, hesitantly, it turned and swam away.

Meanwhile, flying Weapon had halted too. Its eyes held no expression decipherable to humans, but they could sense it measuring, sizing up the town. Then it, too, turned and flew away.

Realising he hadn't breathed in the last thirty seconds, Evan let out a long sigh. He was not alone. Some of the soldiers actually collapsed. Suddenly exhausted despite not actually doing anything, they gradually dispersed, even if some had to be carried.

**Later...**

The now recovered soldiers assembled for an emergency briefing. The Highwind had landed safely, and its passengers were no more than battered. Heidegger took the stage.

"I can see you are all exhausted, so I won't keep you long, but the following meeting may save your life. When we fled the North Cave, a handful of soldiers kept their heads and used Fine Tuned Sense Materia on the four monsters. This is the data gathered combined with what we already know about the creatures from Professor Gast's report.

"When the planet feels threatened , it creates Weapons to defend itself. These four monsters are unused Weapons from the last time. The planet has awakened them to fight against Sephiroth –yes, Sephiroth is alive, and yes, he is trying to destroy the planet. Keep that to yourselves. Anyway, this is the data gathered on the four Weapons.

"First, Emerald Weapon." He switched on the projector, and an image of each monster showed on the screen. "Emerald Weapon is an underwater based creature. It can only survive on the surface for minutes at a time. It is the one that today we shot with Sister Ray. The blast, we believe, badly hurt it, and it may not surface again. If it does, it will not be for some time. It is slow moving, but extremely powerful. If you should ever find yourself fighting it, run. Shinra needs soldiers more than it needs heroes. If you are unlucky enough to be unable to flee, aim for the cavity at the centre of its chest. This appears to be a weak spot, as proven by Corporal Steve Ryan, now deceased.

"Secondly, we have Ruby Weapon. This particular creature is also a sea creature, but it appears to be surface dwelling, needing to breathe. It has fins and a tail designed for moving quickly through water. Although its armour is not as thick as some of the other Weapons, its slanted nature, similar to the design used in tanks, is capable of withstanding powerful blasts. Anything less than a direct hit with Sister Ray will not bring it down. This Weapon is probably the most dangerous of the four, combining speed with durability. Happily, it is currently occupied attempting to break through the magical barrier Jenova has put in place around the North Cave, and is not currently threatening us. Hopefully, it will not attempt to attack us until it is successful.

"Thirdly, we have Ultimate Weapon. Despite the name, this is actually the weakest Weapon of the four. It has the thinnest armour, necessarily for weight purposes in flight. It also appears to be the smartest of the four, although this is judging from behavioral patterns and not due to the Sense Materia. Its primary Weapon appears to be a version of the Ultima spell, distilled from materia, hence the name. Make no mistake, gentlemen, Ultimate Weapon is far from harmless. The other three Weapons are designed for large scale destruction. This particular one is designed for slaughtering survivors, and is built for speed and dexterity. It is too fast for Sister Ray to target, so when it attacks, our defenses will be down to you.

"Finally, we have Diamond Weapon. Thankfully, it is also currently attempting to break the barrier at the North Cave, so we have not, as yet, needed to worry about it. It is the most durable of all the Weapons. Its armour is thirteen feet thick diamond, which as you know is the hardest natural substance known to man. The weight of this armour means it is slow moving, however, and we should get plenty of advance warning before it attacks. Of the weapons, it has the least offensive capabilities. Its primary Weapon appears to be brute force. If it attacked, it would simply walk through the town. When I say through I mean _through,_ as in 'through a wall', not through as in 'down the street'. Is everyone clear on that?"

There was a murmur of assent. Heidegger continued speaking. His eyes darted from face to face.

"If we hit Diamond Weapon with Sister Ray, it would just soak it up and keep on coming." Heads jerked up at that. The expressions on the execs were grave. Except for Hojo, who was looking myteriously delighted, even handcuffed and guarded by Reno and Rude.

"Does anyone have anything to add?" Heidegger asked the other execs. Scarlet stood, and approached the microphone.

"Things are not entirely bleak. My techs in the R&D department have been told to prioritise the creation of anti-weapon artillery, as have the Science depo, Hojo's former department." Hojo at last showed some expression, he was glaring at her back. "If we can hold out mere weeks, we will have machines capable of seeking out and destroying the Weapons." Some soldiers were frowning. It was common knowledge that, if permitted, Scarlet would replace all Shinra combat staff with robots. Her gaining power might not be a good thing in the long run. Smiling, Reeve stood.

"Don't worry, your jobs are safe. Three hundred foot tall machines can't patrol the streets." They both stood down. Heidegger returned to the mike.

"Closing remarks, anyone?"

Silence.

"Thank you. You may go. Good luck."

The soldiers filed out. Evan happened to be on patrol duty with the Elite squad, which meant it'd be another two hours before he would be free of duty. They formed up and left.

"Well...that was the most depressing assembly I've been at in a while." Nic sighed.

"In a while? You get two hundred foot monsters created by the planet to obliterate life and highly trained professional soldiers trying to destroy the world a lot?"

"Hmph. Typical Midgar garrison rat."

"Thank you."

"...Anyway, my point was, I know the execs. I've been in this squad for years, and every time they come here I get presented to them. This is serious. Not once did Heidegger or Scarlet break out into their infamous maniacal laughter. The only time they are this businesslike is in times of complete crisis, when they are measuring exactly what they say, in case they terrify their listeners. Even fighting for their lives, they occasionally burst out laughing as a taunt or stress relief. The only time I've seen them like this before was when Nibelheim was burned down. If news of that had gotten out, there would've been massive panic. Four Weapons aren't enough to provoke that kind of panic. They aren't much different from when the baby Midgar Zolom escaped from Hojo's lab. People can deal with escaped monsters. They know about them. Our world is full of monsters. But this is different. No, they're holding something back. Something important."

"I'm impressed. I've been stationed in Midgar since before Nibelheim, and I never noticed that."

"Yeah, but before AVALANCHE blew up the Number 1 Reactor, how many times had you seen them? Face to face, I mean, not on the T.V."

"Good point. A couple of times when they inspected the reactors."

Silence for a time. They reached the docks and turned around. While passing the bar on the way back to the barracks, they had to break up a minor brawl, the catylyst of which had been which channel to put the television on. By the time the fight was broken up, the evening news was almost over. Later, the squad would wonder why the broadcast hadn't caught their attention. They had been just talking about catastrophic events, after all. But they were all exhausted, and the last story on the news was barely heard as they walked out the door.

"...In other news, astronomers the world over have been puzzled by the appearance of a new red star in our night sky. The star, which-" Then the broadcast ended as somebody turned off the T.V.


	19. The Shinra's Defense

Of course, Weapon wasn't giving up that easily. It set up a permanent home in the crater left by its projectile, close to Junon so it could do some light rampaging whenever the urge took it. Over the next three days, it launched a series of pinprick attacks on Junon, fleeing as soon as it was fired upon. Sometimes these attacks did no more than break a shop window, while some killed half a dozen civilians. By the time the garrison was mobilized, it was always gone. The people started getting restless and Rufus declared martial law.

By the third day, however, Shinra began to take heed of the howling mob, not least because Hojo was demanding that Vincent Valentine and Red thirteen be shipped back to his private home in Midgar. Although he had been demoted from head of the Science depo, he claimed Valentine and Red were personal projects, nothing to do with Shinra, and therefore he was entitled to do as he wished with them. Because Hojo was still a dangerous enemy to make, Rufus agreed to lift the martial law after one more day.

That night, two submarines surfaced in Weapon's crater. They'd been specially built for durability and lightness, in order to survive the descent down the waterfall(Weapon's crater was below sea level, so water flooded in from both ends-the sea and the river that had previously been there.) They fired on the sleeping Weapon, but submerged when it woke up and attacked. Bewildered and angry, the Weapon flew towards Junon to exact revenge...and found the garrison fully mobilized and ready. Even squads of second class SOLDIER were there, in case it managed to land. Firing Ultima beams in all directions, (it didn't get close, so the humans could see them coming and dodged) it was forced to flee. The only casualties were two damaged Roulette Cannons and a Death Machine. Desperate to vent its anger on something, it headed to the only other sizeable human settlement on the continent-Midgar. However, Alex, who was in charge of the Midgar military when Heidegger, Scarlet, and Rufus were absent, saw it coming and it was greeted by heavy artillery fire, and it was forced to flee from there too. Desperately seeking a target, it narrowly avoided being drowned by the Midgar Zolom and being fried by the Fort Condor condor. Shrieking with rage, it flew to the North Cave to attack the one target that didn't fight back, but was nevertheless impenetrable. It never again dared attack any human settlement larger than a small town.

Meanwhile, in Junon, Shinra was presented with a new dilemma-what to do with the captured members of AVALANCHE. Yuffie Kisaragi was ransomed back to Wutai. Valentine and Red thirteen were shipped to Midgar, to Hojo's secure facility for his privately owned specimens. Immediately on their arrival, the specimens started a massive uprising. It was quickly quelled, thanks to implant technology, but Vincent and Red, along with a number of other non-feral specimens, escaped in the confusion. Apparently Vince and Red were icons, having achieved every research specimen's dream-mauling Hojo to within an inch of his life.

Cait Sith mysteriously disappeared without a trace, but, as he was a robotic Shinra employee, nobody was too concerned. That left Barret, Tifa, and Cid still in custody. Tifa was unconscious, and, over Elena's objections, had been placed in Tseng's ward. Tseng was sent to the Midgar public hospital.

Barret always stayed with Tifa, and it was clear he would make no attempt to leave until she woke up. Cid, too, seemed content to stay where he was, having nowhere to go anyway. He no longer had a plane or an airship, so what was the point of returning to Rocket town? Here, his expenses were paid and he was in close proximity to the Shinra execs and Prez, so he could bitch at them for scrapping the space program as much as he pleased. AVALANCHE, it seemed, were no longer a problem.

No, now the problem was Meteor. Four days after it had been summoned, it was steadily increasing in size and was now visible during the day. Astronomers attitudes had gradually changed from confusion to interest to alarm, and now the attitude of the citizens was more restless. Although they didn't have the courage to actually riot, stones were thrown at Shinra garrisons at night and patrols were met with jeers, et cetera, et cetera. As both soldiers and barracks were armoured, this made little difference.

In his more reflective moments, Evan wondered how this had happened. He remembered the murals in the Temple of the Ancients. What exactly was the planet's purpose in creating a materia that could only be used to destroy itself? What was the _point?_ That was just asking for some psychopath to use it-as had happened. Or even some idiot who used the materia just to see what would happen. Then again, maybe some idiot ancient had woken up one day and decided 'I'm bored, what'll I do today? I know! I'll create a materia capable of destroying the only planet I'm capable of living on! Hey it worked! I could destroy it, but why not just hide it somewhere where it's difficult but not impossible to use! Yeah, I'll do that! Won't that be fun?'

Nobody thought like that, did they?

Well...maybe Hojo.


	20. Interlude

** Interlude**

Nothing much happened for the next two days. As things settled down, Evan finally had a chance to relax -not completely; the memory of the assassins in Rocket Town was too fresh for that, but somewhat. He'd been on the move more or less constantly since his house had burned down. This had been the first time he'd had more than a few days in any one place. But now, with things settling down slightly, Rufus, realizing his staff could only remain on a knife edge for so long, ordered all nonessential staff to stand down. Although there were sweeps by submarines and a single guard at the elevator to Lower Junon, most Shinra staff had no commitments for the day. Even AVALANCHE weren't guarded. Until Tifa woke up, Barrett wasn't going anywhere, so a locked door was sufficient. Cid was in negotiations with Heidegger and Palmer to restart the space program (If you think I'm gonna come running just because the fucking world is in danger, think again, kid! Give me some fucking guarantees that you won't just scrap it afterwards, like last time! And hurry up with that god damn tea!). He wanted his airship back, a new rocket to be built, another plane, and Shera as the head of his engineers.

As Evan had been on the move for the last few weeks, he had a substantial amount of back pay to collect. He spent most of it buying stuff he'd lost with his house, most notably the portable CD player. The situation being what it was, he'd probably be doing a lot of guard duty, and boredom was an implacable enemy. He was not about to let Sector 1. Station happen again.

The rest of his free day he spent in the Respectable Inn playing cards with the rest of the squad in between dispensing pearls of wisdom to awed new recruits. Spike, having served his term in the elite squad, had been transferred elsewhere, and a new girl, Jenny Ansdell, was in his place. She, unfortunately, was excellent at poker, but being very likeable made this bearable. He'd never been a good gambler anyway. If you can't afford to lose, don't play.

Meteor was getting steadily bigger all the while, and angry citizens, emboldened by the lack of soldiers on the streets, finally worked up their courage enough to riot. Rufus reacted swiftly, calling in a division of Roulette Cannons. And as everyone knows, artillery were _highly trained_ at civilian crowd control. Somehow, it had worked. People had seen that Rufey was losing patience and had dispersed. A single man had tried to rally the crowd with the phrase "He can't kill all of us!" To which Rufus had responded "Why not?" Two soft spoken words had done more to quell resistance than massacres ever could.

Another assassin tried to kill Evan, presumably a gift from the HBI. In a room full of Shinra soldiers, he never had a chance. He didn't even have to be killed. The Inn was one of the most secure spots in Junon, the only danger being that a newbie would try out a fire materia he'd been given and engulf the table. After the assassin had been beaten up and robbed(his weapon, a showy imitation Masamune, fetched 10,000 gil, which Evan split between the two guys who'd stopped him), and the recruit had surrendered his Materia, Heidegger approved an appeal to send him (the assassin, not the recruit) to Fort Condor. Apparently the execs had decided Evan was worth the fuss the HBI kicked up every second he still lived after he had played a part in keeping one of their more talented employees alive. Or maybe Elena had pulled some strings. Maybe his luck was turning after all. Or maybe not. For the present, he reserved judgment until further notice.

- - - - -

* * *

If your name happens to be Jenny Ansdell, rest assured that this is a complete coincidence. I know this is getting a bit boring now, sorry. 


	21. The Revival of AVALANCHE

_I know it's getting repetitive, sorry. More interesting from here on, I promise._

**The Revival of AVALANCHE**

The seventh day after Meteor started out like the last few. However, this soon changed as a medic reported that Tifa was showing signs of life. Heidegger knew the soldiers needed R&R, so the garrison wasn't put on red alert just yet, but they were...encouraged...to stay close to home. Since he had nowhere to go anyway, Evan was more or less happy to oblige. But the decision was taken away from him, because, in accordance with the Evan Shinra Theory of the Nature of Unfairness (if the worst can happen, it'll usually happen to _him_), he was assigned guard duty to the Doctor's office. It was something he could've done without. Barrett was not a gracious prisoner. The straw that broke the camel's back was a string of abuse followed by a suddenly surprisingly polite "Hey, you, she's waking up. Could I get a meal in here?"

"I'm a guard, not a fucking waiter. Could you please shut the fuck up?"

When he turned, Rufus Shinra and Heidegger were standing behind him.

_I don't believe this..._

He straightened up and saluted.

"Sir!"

Rufus sighed, his eyes flicking to the serial number printed on his armour.

"You again. Be aware ...Evan..., that you have caused me a substantial amount of trouble in recent weeks. The Honey Bee Inn is howling for your head. You have proven to be an exceptional soldier; else you would already be rotting in an unmarked grave at Fort Condor. But even so, you are walking on a knife edge, and if you expect me to continue ensuring your survival, you will not step a toe out of line or you will be deemed no longer worth my effort. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir."

"Heidegger?"

Rufus, whose father had forced him to go through the SOLDIER training program, saw Evan's eyes flicking to Heidegger's oncoming fist, and the split second decision to let it connect. He was impressed. This guy might be unlucky, but he was definitely not stupid. He might be worth keeping an eye on.

"Guys, help him up, will you?"

His two 1st class SOLDIER bodyguards (since his father had been murdered he wasn't taking chances) glanced at each other uncertainly.

"Are you sure that's wise, sir?"

"Barrett and Tifa are in a small room with one door, and a window overlooking a sheer drop. If they kill me, they will have to fight their way out through the entire Junon garrison. That is not going to happen."

Shrugging, the two bodyguards picked up Evan and carried him into a corner, where he woke up five seconds later, slightly unsteady but okay. The techs nearby were surprisingly understanding and caring, many of them apparently having been hit by Heidegger before. Now fully recovered, he walked out the door...and was immediately apprehended by an officer and told to stand between the Press Room and the Command centre of Junon, so Barrett had nowhere to go. After some time, Tifa, now fully awake, walked past, followed by a Shinra soldier followed by Barrett, who for and instant looked as though he was about to attack, but changed his mind and stalked into the Press Room, famous for the door to the Execution Chamber tucked unobtrusively in a corner, reminding the Press that awkward questions were not advised. The door cut off sound, so they didn't have any idea what was going on inside. Except for once, when Barrett's voice was faintly heard screaming "If you've gotta do it...Do me first!" Knowing Scarlet, he wouldn't be obliged.

Losing interest, Evan stared into space for a while, wishing he'd brought his headphones today. Then the alarms went off.

"Emergency! Emergency! Weapon is approaching! Attention all military personnel: Take your positions!"

Grateful that for once a difficult decision wasn't his, Evan looked to the man across the corridor, who thankfully, outranked him. He sighed and said "You heard. 'All military personnel.' That's us. The prisoners are secure."

"Gotcha. Thanks." _Thanks_ because if AVALANCHE escaped, that man would be responsible.

Evan reached the street just ahead of the flood from the press room of civilians who had had enough, and just as Sister Ray fired. He assumed his place silently, picking up the rocket launcher assigned to him. There were no jokes about Midgar garrison rats always being late. _That_ was how tense it was.

Beyond the horizon, there was an explosion. Stock still, everyone waited, silence spreading out like a blanket as the alarms abruptly shut off. Nobody started cheering or sat down. They just stood there, waiting again. Then the alarms resumed. It was almost more relaxing than the uncertainty of not knowing whether it was dead or alive. Nic, dressed in her new green Commander uniform, spoke up. Interestingly, not in her drill sarge voice. This was a new voice, soft and scared.

"Okay guys, you know the drill. This is a new Weapon, not one we've met before, so nobody really knows what to expect. Do your best. Good luck."

They waited as the normal artillery doors opened and the smaller cannons began to fire as Weapon came into range.

"Wait for it..."Nic said, just loudly enough to be heard over the alarms. Then "Fuck, it's moving fast." Seconds ago it had been a speck on the horizon, but now, it was close enough to make out details, and getting more distinct all the time.

As it came into range, Nic dropped her hand. "Now!" The volley of shells cruised down into the docks, locked on, and exploded on contact with Weapon's armour, doing little or no damage. But the monster wasn't immortal –its armour was cracking and buckling under the fire from the entire town. Of course, if they could see that, it was far too close for comfort. "Brace yourselves!" somebody –not Nicole-screamed just before the impact. Then the full force of the creature's charge hit the town. All the soldiers were knocked off their feet. Dropped rocket launchers rolled across the street. Some soldiers got up, retrieved their weapons and fired on the monster point blank. With the heavy artillery also firing, Weapon's armour began to crumble under the strain, and, it had no choice but to submerge to shield itself from the deluge. Rolling rocket launchers back to their owners, those few soldiers brave enough to advance to the railing called back "There's people firing on it from the docks! Two or three are firing on it! And there's submarines firing from behind! It's just cut one of them in half, but they're not giving up!" A pause, then "Look out, it's coming up!" Crouching, they reloaded as the Weapon was flushed out from underwater. It rose, then dived again, causing a tsunami to sweep away the submarines and the attackers on the docks. It worked, and Weapon repeated the action several times to keep the submarines swept away as they tried to turn.

Now free of underwater assault, it lashed out at the support pillars to Junon town...and was almost electrocuted. Furious, it rose up and glared at the town, the armoured plate across its face retracting. The beam from its mouth struck suddenly, burning a hole in the steel plate on the face of Junon. Eyes now fixed on Rufus' command window, having somehow realized this was where the threat was coming from. Just as it was just about to fire, Sister Ray roared, and Weapon's head exploded. Shards of red hot armour scattered all over the street. A particularly large shard hit Jareth in the throat, punching completely through him and bouncing off the road behind him. He was dead before he hit the ground. The other soldiers escaped mostly unharmed, their own armour protecting them from deep punctures, although Emma did go down with an armour shard embedded in her knee. The unharmed soldiers ran forward, except for Emma and the two tending to her. Jareth was left with a brief look over to confirm that, yes, he was dead, and no, a Phoenix Down couldn't repair that much damage. All soldiers within eyeshot advanced to the railing and began pounding Weapon's headless corpse with rockets to avenge their fallen friend, until it sank beyond view. Then everyone collapsed, exhausted yet again by the tension of the battle. Strange, really...they should be used to it by now. But they weren't. Some were crouched next the red ash that had been Jareth, clearly devastated. Nobody moved for some time.

After a while, Emma, now fully recovered thanks to a Restore Materia carried by one of the smarter soldiers, looked up and blinked. "Isn't that Tifa?" The squad turned their eyes upward. Sure enough, a white speck was slowly descending the side of Junon, Command Tower, somehow maintaining her grip despite climbing down a sheer metal plate.

"Scarlet's gonna be gutted. That must be the execution chamber that Weapon hit."

"Funny...when you think of all the places it could have hit, it hit the one place that would not really damage the town. It's managed to really scare everyone without doing that much damage."

"Speaking of Scarlet...Isn't that her there, standing at the hole in Junon? Sending those two soldiers climbing after Tifa. They can't possibly expect to-" Nic cut off as a soldier chasing Tifa lost his grip and plummeted down the side of the town, landing a short distance off. He got up instantly and walked to a place where he could see Tifa and her pursuers, apparently unharmed. A soldier Evan didn't know the name of took out a rifle.

"I can take her from here, ma'am, just say the word."

"No!" Tifa's former pursuer whipcracked, sprinting over and knocking the weapon.gun from his hand. "Scarlet wants her alive, or we'd have shot her ourselves! Let her be!"

"Suit yourself." The man was one of Scarlet's Executive Guard, so outranked anyone there even though he was only a Marine.

Tifa was still holding on, somehow, moving slowly but not stopping. But even a spider couldn't hold on to that surface forever, and eventually Tifa's grip slipped and she fell, landing at the base of the cannon below her. Cautiously, and hence more slowly, Scarlet and two Attack Squads followed. The Attack Squad on the street started climbing the wall to the cannon, for some reason. He was succeeding, too somehow. Dismissing this idiot as insane, Evan began gathering armfuls of the smaller shards of Weapon armour. Tifa had nowhere to go, except out along the cannon, so there was no need to pay attention.

"Hey, what're you doing?"

"Well, the way I see it, there isn't that many Weapons around. Assuming Meteor doesn't hit us, these pieces of armour could be worth a lot in a couple of years. With my enemies, I'll need resources."

James laughed. "And here was me thinking you were going to have them made into a suit of armour."

Evan froze. "Hmmm...never thought of that. Thanks!"

"Maybe it'd be a good idea for us all to do that." Nic mused, frowning. "There's gonna be a lot of people dead before Meteor hits, and we'll need any advantage we can get if we're not going to be among them."

After a suitable amount of Weapon Armour had been collected, they decided to get off the streets so angry civilians didn't attack them when they had the opportunity. Not that any civilians would be stupid enough to be on the streets for at least another few hours, but it was better not to take risks.

"Who exactly are your enemies, Evan? I know you came here in a hurry from Midgar, but I've never asked." The rest of the squad had such blank faces they had to be listening intently.

"His ex-girlfriend was pissed at him for leaving and hired assassins." James put in helpfully, apparently still confused.

"Um...Actually, no. Long story short, I made a bad decision and pissed off a guy who then tried to kill me. I returned the favour. But he was the number one customer of the local brothel, which was upset that he wouldn't be paying them anymore. Hence, here I am."

"So that's _enemy, _not _enemies._"

"Well, kinda...I was sentenced to Fort Condor for murder, and accidentally blew up a Condor, so they're not too pleased with me either. But they can't really get to me."

"Anyone else?"

"Well, Rufus did tell me this morning that I was causing him trouble by having an irritating habit of surviving..."

"Is there anyone you've met who hasn't tried to kill you and/or threatened to do so?"

"Well, I bumped into a guy in the street the other day who merely robbed me. Does that count?"

"Ha! I was right! Your girlfriend has tried to kill you at some point!"

"...Is that the Highwind?"

They were briefly distracted as Cid's airship skimmed overhead. Not heading for the airport, oddly. Unfortunately, they weren't distracted enough, and kept mocking him the whole evening. The fact that they were just letting off steam to recover from the death of a comrade took the sting out of it, so he didn't pay much heed, but spreading rumours could be annoying, especially if Ree somehow got to hear about it. They only stopped when they got an order summoning most of the garrison to another Executive Assembly. Given the contents of the last one they'd attended, this was understandably worrying.

* * *

_I'm doubtful about that last bit, from 'Who are your enemies' on. Maybe I should've left it out. Is anyone still reading this?_


	22. Assignments and Preparations

**Assignments and Preparations**

As usual, the Execs were already present when the army filed in. As was the President. The lined up soldiers were somewhat less impressive than usual, on account of being ordered to attend in plain clothes. It was...weird, especially seeing some of the soldiers who were invariably in uniform, the guys who hadn't had their keen edge blunted or never thought of themselves as off duty. And then there was a few dressed as though they were attending a ball. Plain clothes assembly was a thing that usually only happened in theory.

Personally, Evan had interpreted the summons as having emphasis on 'plain, so had dressed fairly nondescriptly, except for the ever present shoulder holster. Rufus let them settle down before standing up.

"Good to see you alive, people. Well done. Before you get too comfortable, though, you should know that not all of you will be staying. The following people may leave. GMS 253, Anderson, Thomas. GMS 301, Smith, Paul. GMS 453, Donellan, James." This continued for some time. By the time Rufus had finished, over two thirds of the garrison was gone. The remainder glanced at each other uneasily. The only time the garrison was separated like this was when some of them were about to be assigned to something so dangerous that Shinra didn't dare ask for volunteers. Uncharacteristically hesitant after he'd finished reading names, Rufus took some time before continuing.

"Do you want the bad news, the REALLY bad news, or the good news first?"

"Bad!" Some people called.

"Really bad!" others countered.

"Good!" Some others decided.

"We don't care, just get on with it!" the majority determined.

Rufus smiled. "Suit yourselves. The bad news is, all of you have been killed by Weapon. You no longer exist. That's why you've been brought here out of uniform, so the populace can't get an accurate count of who is dead and who isn't. When you leave here, you are strongly advised to stay out of uniform, stay away from the barracks as much as possible, and avoid all civilians who know who you are. INCLUDING relatives, do you hear me?"

Variants of 'Yes, sir." were heard across the room.

"The good news is, you are all granted two weeks leave, subject to sudden recall. Thanks to your valiant efforts, Ruby, Ultimate and Emerald Weapons are dead, cowed, and seriously injured respectively. Shinra Inc. owes you its continued existence, and we pay our debts. The remaining Weapon, Diamond, is beyond your ability or mine to deal with, pending whatever the R&D depo develops over the next while. Anyway, we have no reason to keep you on a knife edge, and you may not be recalled before your leave is over, so enjoy your time off.

"The worst news, I'm sorry to say, is that immediately after you return from leave, you may and probably will be assigned sting operations against AVALANCHE or Meteor. You are the maximum amount of soldiers we can spare for such a task. Most likely, half of you will not be needed, but Shinra always prepares for the worst. As yet, we have limited options, and if we cannot come up with a solution, perhaps none of you need be assigned to anything at all." He laughed bitterly. "Not that that is much comfort."

"Many of you –God help me, maybe all of you- will die, regardless of what happens. But-" his arm shot out, pointing out the window at the ugly red star clearly visible in the sky "-if it helps to destroy that, will it be worth it? Rest assured, I will do everything I can to keep both you and the world intact. But I will need your help. Enjoy your holiday. I can't spare the resources to track you down if you go AWOL, which is an option for those of you unwilling to fight. But you can't hide from Meteor. You either fight it or die. You can't just do nothing and hope you survive. Remember that. And good luck. Anyone have anything else to add?" Rufus turned away to hide tears that probably didn't exist, as Heidegger stood up.

"That was a depressing speech, sir. I think you were being overly pessimistic. Scarlet's division is well under way in their goal to develop anti-Weapon artillery, and I'm sure we will find a solution to the Meteor problem. Shinra techs have proven, time and time again, that they are capable of any challenge, and this time will be no different. Gya ha ha!"

Then they were dismissed. Back on the streets of Junon, there were already stalls along the streets selling everything from T-shirts(bedecked with slogans such as 'I survived Weapon's attack on Junon' or 'I'm still alive, despite everything you could do, you bastard.') to "Authentic Weapon burgers, get em while they're hot!" Curious, Evan bought one, after ascertaining that others had first and weren't dead yet. It was awful, but people still bought them for the novelty. When you looked out to sea, rowing boats butchering Weapon's corpse were clearly visible. Others were selling teeth the size of fists as good luck charms. Another lucky opportunist had a huge, grey, six chambered heart at the centre of his display. You had to laugh at the Shinra mentality. Still, they had to raise the funds to repair the execution chamber somehow.

Of course, none of them would admit to a connection with Shinra if you asked. If you were in a sadistic frame of mind, you could then arrest them for not having a license to sell things on the street. If you did this too publicly, of course, and made a laughing stock of the company, you mysteriously vanished, so it was usually more trouble than it was worth. Not wishing to cause a riot, especially since he wasn't in armour, Evan left them alone. Returning to the barracks to collect said armour, despite Rufus' warning, he met the rest of his squad, who were doing likewise. Except for James, who hadn't been selected for special duties, they had all detoured to pick up their weapons and armour, before heading out. Rufus, knowing most of the garrison would do this whatever he said, had rearranged the patrol roster so anyone not booked for special duties wasn't there. He might not be the speaker his father had been, but he knew how to organize.

Having collected his armour, and some supplies for the journey, he took the next cruiser to Costa del Sol, heading for a certain house just outside the Gold Saucer desert. It was an awful place to set up shop, with the surrounding area full of monsters. Ordinarily, in a world as wild as this one, isolated homes sooner or later became graveyards. But somehow he hung on, with enough business to make an obscene profit. Because most thought he was the best, and even those who didn't allowed that he was pretty good. How much was this going to cost him?

- - - - - - - - -

**Two days later...**

"It'll be easy, he said." Evan snarled, jumping over a fallen tree. "I just need some materials, he said. It won't cost you a gil if you get 'em for me. Ha!" Behind him, somebody screamed as his pursuer charged through the forest. "So I go get em, and kill some rare monster to get its claws. But then I wake up some rare breed of dragon during hibernation and spend half the night running from it. Typical." He reached the edge of the forest, but didn't break cover. It was too dangerous at present. He waited, until the noises behind him drifted away, before stepping out, alert and watchful.

"Hey! You were sent hunting too?" Jenny stepped into view.

"Yep. Did you hear somebody scream back there?"

"Yeah. This forest is full of people. It seems a lot of people had the same idea you did."

"Note to self: Kill that weaponsmith."

"Amen."

They headed back, picking up three more Shinra soldiers along the way. By the time they got back to the smith's house, they were even more pissed with their mission than before, if such was possible.

"Here's your fucking claw. Now explain to me exactly why, how, and where, you need it to make the armour."

"...Well...uh..."

"You don't, do you?"

"...Not as such..."

This, understandably, was not well received by the customers. After some persuasion, the armourer made twelve sets they were reasonably happy with. He then tried to coax them into paying millions for them, and failed. They were naturally less than pleased at this, and he ended up doing them for free, as promised. They left the claw behind. Which they later found out to be worth a hundred and fifty thousand gil.

Despite the fact that he was annoying and greedy, he was good at his job, they had to admit. The Weapon Armour was amazingly light, built in small overlapping shards like scales. That could take powerful impacts probably even better than Weapons original plate armour did, inch for inch. Even if it didn't, there was no way they could do it any other way. It was obviously impossible to stitch shards of armour back together. He was even thoughtful enough to paint it so that it looked like normal Shinra issue.

The suits were finished just in time. The next day, they were all recalled to duty.


	23. Fort Condor II

_I'm not sticking exactly to the actual rules of the Fort Condor sub-quest in the game, so expect some differences. More survivors, for a start._

**Fort Condor II**

When they got back, they were individually contacted, told to assemble, with utmost secrecy, in Upper Junon, each given assignments, and immediately transported to their assigned station. Shinra was launching a three pronged simultaneous operation, in order to prevent AVALANCHE from preventing any more than one of them. In light of Evan's previous achievements there -namely, surviving- he was assigned to Fort Condor, as additional security against the convicts and failed specimens who would actually be attacking, making sure that none of them escaped. Because there was a sense of urgency about the attack for the first time, there was more than the usual amount of cons attacking, every single one in the camp, the normal Condor security staff couldn't deal with them all.

When he lined up with the rest in the Overseer's tent to receive his assignment, the man recognized him and went white, visibly trembling as though expecting him to bite his throat out.

"L-look, I-I Don't like th-this job, oh-ohkay? I just-"

"Calm down, sir. I'm not about to attack you. Yet." Evan smiled maliciously. "But...let's just say I don't take kindly to people trying to kill me. So if I get attacked today..." A little insurance against possible assassination attempts couldn't hurt. As he left the tent, with his weapon trained on his assignment, he heard the Overseer say shakily to an underling "Tell off some of the reserves to secure the perimeter."

With the prisoners lined up, an Attack Squad behind each to shoot if he ran, the Commander for today, a huge creature bred especially for the purpose by Hojo (after Evan proved so efficient, they had apparently stopped using human Commanders), began exhorting his troops, who were understandably despondent. This had little or no effect. Then, suddenly, one of the humans began singing.

_Always look on the bright, side of life! _

_Always look on the light side of life! _

It was an unbelievable Eric Idle impression. Some of the others picked it up. The Commander screamed at them, trying to restore order and failing. They began to advance.

_If life __seems jolly rotten,_

_There's sumfing you've forgotten,_

_And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing!_

_When you're feeling in the dumps, _

_Don't grumble, silly chumps!_

_Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing!_

Simple experiments had shown that that particular song was almost impossible not to whistle along to. By now almost everyone had joined in, including the security staff.

"Y'know, that guy might be a psycho cannibal responsible for the deaths of over forty people, but he's starting to grow on me" A nearby soldier remarked before joining in.

On the mountain, the opening gambits were played. As expected, the home side's response was fast and deadly, their artillery rolling boulders and fireballs downhill, killing two attackers and forcing the others to retreat. Two Wyverns tried to attack the artillery, but were ambushed by two archers hiding nearby and were forced to retreat as well. With artillery and archers holding the centre of the field secure, attackers were funneled into the wings, where they were met with heavy resistance from Condorian Fighters. After another casualty and several injuries, the first wave fell back in disarray. Injured Condorians began trudging back towards the mountaintop to their medical team, and were quickly replaced by more soldiers pushing forward to fill the gaps. Just out of catapult range, the attacking squad rallied for another charge. One human Shinra attacker started screaming over the singing.

"Don't just charge mindlessly, they have the home advantage, they'll slaughter us! Now we know the composition of the opening line of defense, let's do something about it, shall we? Wyverns to the flanks! Back them up, but let them be what the enemy sees! Don't try going head to head with their artillery!" Strictly speaking, he had no authority over the troops, but when things are desperate, people will follow anyone who looks like he knows what he's doing. They moved to obey. The official Commander, seeing his authority usurped, began pushing forwards with more troops.

When the opposing general saw the Wyverns advancing on the wings, the two hidden enemy archers were forced to charge to head them off, leaving the protection of the artillery. Caught in the open, they were easy prey for the attacking troops. Realising this, a wave of lightly armoured, fast moving Condorian Attackers surged forward to rescue them, but a volley of arrows pincushioned the first three to move, leaving the others with no option but to retreat. The more heavily armoured Defenders could have withstood the flight, but their armour made them slow moving and they couldn't get there in time. Two Fighters engaged in a noble but pointless charge, as they were heavily outnumbered. They killed two research specimens and a human before one was killed and the other retreated, bleeding heavily. The two archers were cut down, and without their protection the Wyverns were able to charge the artillery and destroy them, clearing the way for the rest to advance.

The Condorian troops fell back, heading to their second line of fortifications with Defenders and Attackers forming a perimeter in pairs. Shinra had six casualties, the Condorians had five, so they were relatively evenly matched. Still singing, the Shinra troops were laughing manically, eyeing the fortifications. Workers were visible, planting mines.

"Mark those spots! Don't step on the mines!"

_For life is quite absurd,_

_And death's the final word-_

Fresh troops surged out from the base of the fortress, launching a massive counter offensive. Their general was panicking. The first wave of Attackers were slowed by the shower of arrows falling among them, but they kept coming, even after at least four fell. The Shinra's supply of arrows was not infinite. It was question of which ran out first, courage or arrows. Eventually, the Attacker wave broke and fled, but a second wave of Defenders was coming just behind. The research specimens dealt with that, if barely, while being peppered by a third wave of Shooters. Once robbed of their shields, the Shooters were cut down easily.

The casualty count was now Fourteen to Nine in favour of the Convict Army. But the three waves hadn't been as desperate as they seemed. They had given the Condorians enough time to re establish some artillery just short of the mountaintop. And then drawn all their troops behind it to make their stand. There was no way it could be penetrated without fresh troops. Which the Commander was advancing with. Just out of Artillery range, the Remnants of the Convict Army cowered, firing arrows at any Condorian soldier stupid enough to advance into range. They were slumped, but still singing.

_Forget about your sin,_

_Give the audience a grin, _

_Enjoy it it's your last chance on the earth..._

Back at the base of the mountain, Evan was watching fascinated by the display above. That guy was a better general than he could ever have been, but he was going to die when Evan had survived due to pure bad luck. Behind him, there was a click of handcuffs sliding home as a straggler refused to attack the mountain. His guardian had finally given up trying to persuade him and had slotted home the handcuffs, saying irritably "Well, if you don't want to die quickly, we can find a worse fate for you."

"Worse? I'm about to be executed! How can things get worse?" Evan had time to think '_I know that voice..._' before the handcuffs'chain wrapped around his throat in an attempt to garrotte him.

He kept his head better than most would have in that situation, but still not enough. Another person would have just switched the setting on their gun to Knockout Gas and fired over their shoulder. But he still stayed calm enough to resist the instinctive urge to move forward and claw futilely at his throat, instead lashing backwards with a foot, hearing a kneecap crack under the impact. His attacker screamed but held on. With his vision darkening, Evan jerked his head back suddenly, the back of his head colliding squarely with his attacker's nose, who this time let go.

Brought down with the fall, and finding himself unable to get up, he was left staring blankly at the sky, with the song at the edge of his hearing

_Always look on the bright side of death,_

_And just before you draw your terminal breath,_

_Life's a piece of shit,_

_When you look at it, _

_Life's a laugh and death's a joke it's true._

_You'll see it's all a show,_

_Keep on laughing as you go, _

_Just remember that the last laugh is on you!_

_Oh! Always look on..._

He sat up groggily. The Commander had reached the top of the mountain with reinforcements, and had cut the heads off both the general who'd gotten the troops that far and the psycho cannibal who'd started the singing. The fresh troops had swept away Fort Condor's last stand, and the Commander was on the point of entering the complex. With it keeping AVALANCHE busy, the other surviving troops entered the actual reactor and began pillaging it. Some of them began taking potshots at the Condor, which didn't acknowledge them, instead just staring fixedly at its egg as its blood ran down its feathers. Materia flared inside the complex, and the Commander audibly shrieked. In pain, not rage. The other soldiers began fleeing down the mountainside in a hurry, where they were returned to custody by the Fort Condor security staff. Evan turned to his attacker, who, sure enough, was the assassin who tried to kill him in the Respectable Inn.

"What exactly were you hoping to achieve with that, my friend? Even if you killed me, you still wouldn't get away with it. Why not attack the mountain, and maybe survive, as apposed to me, and definitely die, win or lose."

The assassin smiled. "Can't...execute...an injured man."

A loud cracking noise made Evan turn. The Condor had finally collapsed under the pinprick attacks by the Soldiers, and was rolling downhill, crushing some of the dozen or so convicts, research specimens, and Wyverns who had survived the attack. Meanwhile, resting lightly on the reactor, its egg was slowly cracking. He glanced around. Everyone he could see was watching it. Then he turned back to the assassin.

"Wrong."

_Blam._

* * *

N.B. The song probably isn't word perfect. 


	24. So Many Funerals, So Little Time

_I'm not good __at extremes of emotion, sorry. Spike's sadness seems very artificial to me, but I can't do any better._

**So Many Funerals, So Little Time**

Moving swiftly away from the corpse and reloading the spent bullet, Evan found himself feeling surprisingly guilty. Shooting somebody in cold blood was not something that came naturally to him. At least the Don had been a genuine threat to him. But that guy...he was just going to be executed as soon as he healed. He'd been shot as a message to potential assassins. **Trying to kill Evan Shinra is hazardous to your health. **Hopefully, they'd get the message, and he'd end up with less blood on his hands for it.

The egg cracking above would've covered the sound of his gunshot, but if somebody, anybody, had looked down at that point, he'd be in the newly repaired Gas Chamber before Hojo could say "I am a genius!" Which he would, even if he had absolutely nothing to do with the whole affair. Ah, psychotic narcissistic scientists. Where would Shinra be without them?

With the dead Condor blocking the way up the mountain, it would be some time before they could launch another assault. Once the surviving convicts and monsters were rounded up, the Overseer ordered them to stand down while a team of hardworking engineers tried to figure out how to remove a fifty foot bird from a mountainside without it rolling downhill and killing them all.

There was no answer. Three hours later, they were all recalled to Junon. All of them, overseer and normal Fort Condor staff included. The camp was to be dismantled, rendering countless lives spent at Fort Condor in vain. A mysterious source –ie. Shinra robotic spy- had brought to the attention of the Shinra that there no longer was huge materia in the reactor. It had been presented to AVALANCHE as a thank you for fighting off the assault. With the adult Condor dead, and the newborn chick migrating for the winter, there was no need for a camp to be maintained. So Shinra, conscious of unnecessary expenditure in the run up to Meteor, had shut it down. From now on, Shinra rejects were to be sent to Corel prison, with Dio's permission. Thus ended an era in pointless waste of life.

- - - - - - - - - - -

When they actually arrived at Junon, Evan discovered he was forbidden to enter, because he was still officially dead. Although the original staff of Fort Condor was quartered, the additional staff had been 'killed by Weapon' and technically didn't exist, so they couldn't be allowed in. They couldn't be known to be alive until after the sting ops were complete. While this was understandable, to the scorned soldiers it meant swimming across a saltwater estuary, hiking on foot across grasslands, and, since the camp at Fort Condor had been dismantled, and the Fort itself would obviously be less than hospitable to soldiers who had been attacking it three hours before, also traveling through a cave and a swamp, home to a family of dangerous and vicious giant snakes, before doing more walking until they came to a reasonably sized town, namely Kalm. However, since a large influx of soldiers would surely be noticed in such a town, they would have to continue on to Midgar, which was bad news for all of them, but even more so for Evan because Midgar was the place where the HBI were most powerful. This news was not well received. But, because Shinra desperately needed them off the streets before people started wondering what was going on(large amounts of machine gun toting soldiers arguing loudly does tend to attract attention), a compromise was worked out. They were to act as an escort to the surviving cons from Fort Condor en route to Corel Prison, with transport provided (Shinra's original plan had been to hold them in Midgar until an escort could be spared from other duties, but since several angry soldiers now had nothing to do, why waste them?) The Cargo Ship docked at a deepwater port just outside Junon, and loaded prisoners and guards aboard. Sealed inside the cargo section of three huge trucks, keeping an eye on prisoners in case they chewed through their chains and the reinforced steel wall of the trucks and escaped. It was easily the most boring assignment he'd had since guard duty at sector 1 station, but hey, it beat getting assassinated.

It was very close inside the trucks, which created speculation that Shinra had left them to suffocate for their impertinence. This was quickly dismissed. At present, the company needed everyone who could shoot without blowing their own feet off.

Contrary to popular belief, there weren't that many Shinra soldiers. After the war, there wasn't much point in maintaining huge armies. Until AVALANCHE arrived on the scene, Shinra had no enemies. It'd just be a waste of money and training. Most serious assignments were handled by SOLDIER or the Turks. Shinra's power base relied on money, the convenience of Mako, and the _illusion_ that Shinra soldiers were hiding behind every lamp post. Public duties were given to Grunts and MPs, while behind the scenes, the Turks got things done. But soldiers were more valuable, than SOLDIERS, because they were what the masses saw, and they needed to be kept alive if possible, if only to conceal what the latter were actually doing.

In practice, this meant that being a Shinra soldier was, ironically, probably one of the safest jobs you could find. Hojo and Scarlet churned out enough new experiments every year for additional security when it was needed. However, when Shinra needed a lot of firepower that could think beyond their programming or savaging as many people as possible(such as now), _that_ was when Shinra's General Military Staff took heavy casualties. But they still wouldn't waste them. If they were wanted dead they would've been tossed into Cid's (according to latest reports, Cid was now leading AVALANCHE, because Cloud hadn't resurfaced and Tifa had vanished, presumably looking for him. The spy had no reason to lie, so the reports were presumed accurate) path so he'd kill them instead, leaving Shinra's reputation clean.

When they finally docked near the desert surrounding Corel prison, tempers were short. Because the Gold Saucer was currently closed, they had to drive the prisoners across the desert in the trucks, as opposed to being met by a convoy of Chocobo drawn carriages, as was the norm. On the plus side, since there was nobody around to see them, they were finally allowed out of the trucks' cargo bay, which felt good even in the baking heat of the desert. Unfortunately, they soon were back inside for speed purposes after receiving orders from HQ 'Cloud's back. Currently in Junon reactor. Return ASAP.'

They deposited their prisoners as quickly as possible, scarcely giving them time to get out, before speeding back in the direction they'd come, faster than was advisable in desert conditions, engines fortified against sand damage or not. Apart from their orders, some bright spark prisoner might decide to follow the wheel tracks back to the edge.

By the time they got back to Junon, it was all over. This time they were allowed in, but AVALANCHE was long gone. Evan was met at the barracks door by an ashen faced Spike.

"What's going on?"

"Jenny and Mark are dead. Cloud cut em in half. I was in the...cockpit? Cabin? Bridge? I can't remember what the control room of a submarine is called. Anyway, I heard them dying. Then Cloud came in, took us prisoner, and drove the submarine after Reno."

"How'd he know how to drive it?"

"No idea. He seems to just naturally be good at everything. Remember how fast he picked up Chocobo racing? Anyway, we escaped after he struck land. Thought about sabotaging the sub, but were too scared to actually do anything. Brought back dog tags. Wasn't enough left of them for burial." His face was oddly numb, matter of fact. No emotion in it whatsoever. Then, as Evan joined the surviving members of the heavily depleted Junon garrison, he suddenly burst out "I could've done something! I could've tried! But I didn't, because I was too fucking cowardly! Too fucking scared! And now Cloud's headed to Rocket Town to kill more people and I'm responsible for it!"

The rest of the garrison made soothing noises. Evan remained silent. The speech had made him realize something...he was almost singlehandedly responsible for Sector Seven falling. He'd threatened Corneo into finding AVALANCHE, and the man had duly obliged. Heidegger found out they were living in Sector Seven, and...as simply as that, thousands of lives gone. More blood on his hands. More angry people floating around in the lifestream, waiting for him. And that wasn't including the rest of his squad, killed by Corneo because of the same mistake. One mistake, and here he was. So many corpses...

"Hey, Evan, are you okay?" someone said, someone he should know but couldn't think of the name.

"Probably not."

"Oh...Okay..."

"I don't understand. Why is AVALANCHE trying to stop us? Don't they want Meteor destroyed as much as we do? What's going on?" Nic asked suddenly, diverting attention from him. This was a good question.

"Maybe they want the glory of killing Sephiroth themselves." This statement, courtesy of a guy named Cal, nicknamed Harry because he happened to have black hair and glasses, provoked a number of angry outbursts and insults directed at the absent AVALANCHE members.

"What actually happened that day? What do we _know?_ Shinra and AVALANCHE went to the north cave, next thing we know Meteor's in the sky and Weapons are wandering around destroying stuff. Who says Sephiroth's involved at all?" Unidentified voice.

"Well, the fact that Jenova disappeared from the Shinra building on the same day that a guy with long silver hair and a black cape left a Masamune nailing the President to his chair is kinda a clue, wouldn't you say?" Emma.

A short burst of laughter broke the tension. But too many people had died for anger to be suppressed for long.

Later, there was a memorial service for those who had died over the last few days. Halfway through, they saw a light on the horizon, rising swiftly up into the sky. It slowed down once there, and cruised towards Meteor at what seemed almost a leisurely pace to the onlookers. Once it reached its destination, there was a soundless explosion, Meteor blazing white in the sky, so blindingly that everyone was forced to look away. A huge intake of breath by everyone there was clearly audible.

When enough people had blinked there eyes clear enough to look up, the result was clear in the sky. Meteor remained. Noticeably smaller, true, but still there, still threatening, and upon impact, undoubtedly still devastating.

The officiator recovered first. "And now, I would ask you to please take a moment to remember those who surely died defending yonder rocket. Though it may not have been entirely successful, you can see they have made a difference, which may yet be our salvation."

"Fucking rookies. Should've known a Midgar garrison would screw it up" a nearby soldier muttered sourly.

"A Midgar garrison?" You mean they weren't from Junon?" Evan asked, angry at the comment but mindful enough of Rufus' warning to hold his peace.

"Nope. Shinra figured Junon had taken enough hits at the moment, (too fucking right we have!) so they thought they'd use a Midgar garrison for this one."

"Which division?"

"Dunno..."

"I believe it was the former Sector one reactor division" the officiator put in, frowning. "Yes, because there isn't a Sector One Reactor any more, they were considered the most dispensable. Now will you shut up and let me finish my sermon, thank you!

_My old garrison. Guess that means more funerals to attend. Cloud Strife, you have a lot to answer for._


	25. Back To Midgar

_Yay! Boring inflexible stuff finished, now I can start playing with the storyline again. Sorry about the angst in this chapter._

**Back to Midgar**

Although he hated himself for it, he didn't dare actually go to Midgar for the funerals. He couldn't, for the same reason he hadn't gone back there since he'd left. Paranoia. Fear. Cowardice. Instead, he sent some flowery 'My deepest sympathies' cards to the families of the dead. Unsigned, which was an absolutely pointless precaution. They had his serial number with Shinra, and after that it'd be no trouble to get his name and his face, back when Shinra thought he was just another Grunt not worth bothering with. So why not sign the cards, at least? At least two of the assassins had reached him at Junon, so they knew he was there and where he was stationed. Signing the cards would make no real difference one way or another.

He was becoming more and more paranoid by the day, and he knew it. He also knew it was keeping him alive, but then, any paranoid person thought that by definition. Unfortunately, he actually had assassination attempts to back up his fears. In case he was wrong, he'd bet the Shinra bookkeeping service that no one was trying to kill him. If it turned out that he was being paranoid over nothing, and therefore had wasted the last few weeks of his life living in paranoia, he would have the small consolation of winning his bet.

On the plus side, he hadn't been involved in Sister Ray's transport to Midgar. Shinra were finally giving him a well deserved break from being thrown into meat grinders. His natural assumption, brought on partly by paranoia, partly by experience, and partly via reports from the North Cave that the final Weapon was stirring from its futile attempt to breach the North Crater, was that they were waiting for a more efficient grinder with absolutely no chance of escape. In the meantime, he practiced killing things, slept lightly, and fought growing depression.

His slow mental dissolve had been noticed by others, but Shinra had better things to do than worry about one soldier who tended to annoy a lot of people. Psychiatrists were in short supply. When Sephiroth had butchered his way through the Shinra building, the only detour he'd made had been through the Psych Department.

Three weeks of rest to think about things found him sitting on the docks at Junon, listening to his headphones and pointing his personal sidearm at his own head, his hand shaking.

**Dr. Jekyll is wrestling Hyde...**

**For my pride...**

_-Why wait? What good will procrastinating do you? Someone's gonna get you eventually._

_-Then make __them__ do it! Don't do it for them!_

_-Why? Why grant them satisfaction? At least this way it's in your own hands._

_-They're a brothel, not ninjas. They don't care who kills you once you die! They're famous for it. But...every time you live through an assassination attempt, you cost them money, and the price on your head goes a little further up. Sting them as much as you can. If you cost them enough money that it's more effort for them to kill you than not to, they'll leave you alone. And then you're a free man. Back to Midgar, back __to a life._

_-But...Sector Seven...all those corpses. There'll be less if I'm gone._

_-You think it'll be easier once you're floating around the Lifestream? There's a lot of angry people waiting there for you already, that'll be pleased to see you. Do something to redeem yourself here, so you'll have some supporters down there once you do die, huh? I know you're not guiltless about Sector Seven, but it's too late for absolution now. Do something to lessen the casualties that you can do something about!_

_-That's what Cloud tried to do. And how many are dead now because of him? The reactors, all those purple things in the Temple of the Ancients, countless Shinra soldiers. Do you want to do that?_

_-Hah! Look at you. Three assassination attempts, four if you count Botch, and you go to pieces. Pathetic. How many assassination attempts do Shinra Execs get per year? Fifty? More? Even Turks or just middle rank officers and officials, for fuck's sake! You were guarding Tseng from assassination attempts. Was he even slightly perturbed?_

_-You're really clutching at straws if you're looking at the third biggest bastard in the company for inspiration, kid._

In spite of himself, Evan laughed aloud at that particular thought.

_-Fourth.__ Hojo, Heidegger, and Scarlet come first. Then Tseng._

_-Okay, fourth, then. I missed Scarlet. What about Rufus?_

_-His rating is pending until further notice. Don't know him well enough yet._

_-Fair enough. How does this disprove my point?_

_-It doesn't. NOW I'm going to disprove your point. They may be the most malicious creatures in the company, but they are all born survivors. Like I said earlier, how many assassination attempts have ach survived? Each assassination attempt was used, either as PR, a way of discrediting their enemies, a way of draining funds from their enemies, et cetera, et cetera. Every time you survive an assassination attempt, you drain the clients of a little more money. Remember, they have to pay expenses. And that includes medical bills, which cost more than an unmarked grave. So try spare their lives if you can. It's not as tough as you think!_

_-__ Okay, it's a deal. I've gotta admire the part of my mind that came up with that. You vindictive bastard._

The assassin who had been watching him from the shadows for the past ten minutes, hoping he'd kill himself so he could collect his fee without going head to head with a very dangerous mark, screamed as his kneecap suddenly exploded.

- - - - - - - - - - -

The other soldiers in the garrison, who were getting very worried about his clear mental decline, were not particularly cheered up by his change of attitude. He wasn't suddenly deliriously happy –that would have cemented their suspicions and induced them to send for the straitjackets- but suddenly intensely focused, with a sense of purpose in everything he did. They attributed the change to the discovery of a kneecapped assassin found hanging upside down from Junon Path by one leg. Who wouldn't snap under that much tension? At least he wasn't homicidal.

-

One week later, after a surprise earthquake that again put the garrison on edge (they remembered the sudden earthquake that accompanied the rise of the Weapons), They were all summoned –every single soldier in the garrison, all guards, all patrollers, everyone- to another emergency assembly. Alex was on the podium accompanied by a full squad of First Class SOLDIER. He began speaking instantly, urgency radiating from every cell in his body, rapier drawn and clearly in no mood to argue.

"Listen up, because I'm only gonna say this once. Time is running out. Sister Ray is almost in place. Midgar garrisons are stretched. AVALANCHE copycat groups are attempting to reach the cannon. This is our last chance to reach Sephiroth and save the planet. They can NOT be allowed to succeed. BUT...Midgar garrisons alone can't both stop them and protect the populace. The whiplash and Mako radiation would decimate our population. We need to fire as soon as is humanly possible, but no one –no one- can be on the streets or they're probably dead. That's where you come in. We need you to enforce the martial law. Bring whatever weapons you can find in the next thirty seconds, but don't hang around. Shinra will supply whatever you leave behind. Ask questions and you die. Hesitate and you die. Fall behind, and you die. I mean that. Now move!"

They took his warning seriously, and the garrison exploded into life, flooding towards the airport at top speed. Evan made a short detour, picking up his Weapon armour but not taking the time to put it on. As he was coming out of the building, only his unnatural alertness honed by several assassination attempts and the ensuing paranoia

allowed him to duck under the scything blade of a First Class SOLDIER, who grinned and screamed "I catch you before you get on that helicopter, you're dead, you crazy fuck!" Evan sped up. Although he'd always been an excellent sprinter, the genetically enhanced Soldier wasn't far behind. But gradually, his lead stretched as his energy conserving but fast moving lope outstripped the raw power of his pursuer, jumping over fallen soldiers as they were helped up by caring friends.

By the time they reached the side of town closest to the airport, he was running with the pack, ducking and dodging through fellow soldiers, but not pushing them out of his way -he wasn't selfish enough for that. The corridor outside the airport was packed, so he had to stop or shoot his way through, desperately hoping that the SOLDIER wouldn't find him among everyone else. After looking back, and seeing the aforementioned SOLDIER fast approaching, with his eyes clearly fixed directly on him, he sighed and moved clear of the pack to gain room to maneuver. He had time to think _'If this was an action flick, this would be the part where everything happens in slow motion' _before adrenaline took over. He threw the armour he was carrying at the SOLDIER, who barely broke stride stepping over it. That didn't matter –it was now far enough away that he wouldn't trip over it. The SOLDIER raised his blade like a baseball bat and swung with eerie speed, but he was already ducking. Even so, it was close –the blade actually sliced off some of his hair as he ducked. As he went down, he lashed out with a foot and swept the feet of his attacker from under him. He got up first, and as the SOLDIER looked up, he found himself looking into the barrel of a Shinra Handgun. Then he moved impossibly fast, so fast that Evan wasn't clear what happened next. He definitely felt two feet hitting him in the chest, which should've been impossible, not before he could pull the trigger. Next thing he knew, the SOLDIER had frozen and Alex was standing beside him, rapier drawn, waiting for his Stop spell to wear off.

"You move like a SOLDIER, y'know that? Nobody never fucked up by Hojo should move that fast." Then, seeing his expression, "Relax, you don't have Mako Eyes, and there's no way to hide that side effect, so you're fine."

"Um...no comment." He retrieved his armour and got on a helicopter. By the time they got to Midgar, he'd put it on and had taken Weapons and Materia from the storage racks. He selected his usual Attack Squad Machine Gun/Sleeping Gas Feature and added an assault rifle and surplus ammunition for all three. After careful consideration, he decided too forego the Rocket Launcher as being too heavy, trusting his grenades to do damage if he needed it. Since he expected to be switching guns regularly, there wasn't much point in equipping Materia in them. That left four slots in his armour. He selected Luck Plus, Counterattack, Pre-Emptive and Restore. With no offensive magic, if he met something that could cast Barrier he was screwed, but that couldn't be helped. Finally, stocking up on Curative Items, mindful that an Elixir had saved his life at Sector 1 Station, he decided he was as prepared as possible and sat back.

In spite of the fact that he was back in Midgar, he was in a fairly good mood. If Alex was anything to go by, it was utter chaos out there, and no assassin would try kill him in conditions like that. So all he had to worry about was getting killed because he was in the way or for his meat, and not for personal reasons. As he got out of the helicopter, somebody yelled from the seething mass of soldiers "Hey, Ev! Good to have you back! Kill anyone since you were last here?"

"Oh, you bet!" Evan screamed back, grinning and putting on his mask as he leapt down. "Great to be here, guys!" And he meant it. In truth, the fact that he was in a more interesting kind of danger than usual had little to do with his mood. Actually, there was one simple reason behind it.

_It's good to be home._

-

There might be a delay with the next chapter. It's pure action and I want to get it right. Please review.


	26. Armies of AVALANCHE

_Yes, I have just read Night Watch –the Russian one, not the Terry Pratchett- which is why there's so many music lyrics suddenly appearing. I guess there wasn't as much of a delay as I thought._

**The Armies of AVALANCHE**

Before they were given their assignments, Alex stood up on the podium for some final words. The soldiers were assembled in several different rooms all over the city, so he picked one at random and broadcast to the others.

"One last thing...does anyone need something Shinra hasn't already supplied?"

Occasional soldiers asked for various stuff and were directed into the requisition chamber nearby. Evan found a good CD player and burned a few dozen random songs from the Shinra database. It didn't matter what they were. He wouldn't hear anyone sneaking up on him over the sounds of battle, and with all the close range gunfire he expected to be near, the songs were for ear protection, not entertainment. When everyone was finished, Alex resumed.

"Okay guys, you'll receive your assignments individually, so I don't have much more to say. Squads of three, you'll be outnumbered but you'll have to cover a lot of ground and we don't want them slipping past you. Remember, this is our last chance. If we fail, _Everyone on this planet is dead! AVALANCHE can not reach the cannon before it fires!_ Oh, by the way, I forgot to mention, our Cetra specialists have reported that Weapon is likely to sense us drawing all the Mako from the earth and move on us. It hasn't yet, as far as we know, but it might. I don't know why I'm telling you this, since you can't do anything about it one way or the other, but what the hell. Good luck."

They dispersed to their separate assignments. Evan, of course, was assigned to Sector One. As the cannon was situated in Sector Eight, he could expect a lot of action. In accordance with his usual luck, he was patrolling with two of the most annoying men he had ever met. They just would not shut the fuck up! Eventually, he was forced to just turn on the CD player and zone out. Sister Ray towered above them, clanking noisily as techs worked feverishly to focus the Mako streams to power it up. It was drowned out briefly by the speakers at every street corner as Rufus made a last announcement.

"Citizens of Midgar. To anyone who doesn't know me, I am Rufus Shinra, President of Shinra Inc. This is your last warning. Get off the streets now! The Mako Cannon is almost ready! When it fires, there may be whiplash that will kill anyone not under cover. Do not ignore this announcement. There will be Shinra troops patrolling the streets, and they have been ordered to shoot to kill. Anyone they see is dead. I'm not going to say 'Do you understand' because I _know_ you understand. Anyone seen on the streets will be assumed a terrorist and gunned down. Shinra out."

_Hah...cheerful as ever..._

They patrolled on, for a time just seeming to walk, nothing standing in their way. After a time, Alex' voice was heard over the speakers.

"To all the patrols. The AVALANCHE copycat groups have been reported as having seized an old cache dating from the war, so expect a lot of dangerous machines out there. Thank you."

Nothing happened for another while. Then they turned a corner and found themselves facing five odd looking men in armour. Everyone froze, but the Shinra soldiers recovered first, and two of the armoured men fell almost instantly. The one in front of the survivors raised a hand, and without warning a Bolt3 narrowly missed the Shinra, shattering the street in front of them, and suddenly Evan was fighting for his life, blood and music pounding in his ears and desperation in his heart.

- - - - - - - - - -

Far to the north, Diamond Weapon rose from the ocean depths like a continent, small tsunamis fanning out from its eruption. The planet had called it, and such a summons could not be ignored. The skin disease marring the planet's surface had increased its assault, siphoning ever more of its failing strength, where now every shred was vital if it was to survive the Calamity. The Planet cared nothing of the fate of the parasites infesting it –children were to be used, perhaps nourished if necessary, but once they outlasted their usefulness, why preserve them? The Calamity had found new tools among them, and soon the Meteor would fall again. Of her four servants, two were cowed and one slain, but her last faithful servant would not fail her, and the foolish creatures feeding from her would rue their impertinence.

Weapon knew nothing of such thoughts, and cared only for one thing...

**Hungry...**

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Alarms flared in the Shinra building, and Rufus glanced up from his control panel where he had been overseeing the Mako Cannon's preparations. Switching on his mike, he stroked the remote for Sephiroth's implants in his pocket. He'd been expecting this. Surely Sephiroth wasn't just going to let them break his barrier without a fight.

"Report!" he barked into the mike at the frightened looking tech.

"Thank you, sir! The garrison on the great glacier has reported that Weapon is on the move."

"Which one?"

"Hold on...Diamond, sir." The tech paused, then pushed forward suicidally. "It's heading straight for Midgar, sir. Not a single deviation in its path-" Rufus terminated the connection and turned to Scarlet.

"Sir? Preparations are running smoothl-"

"How's the anti weapon artillery coming on?"

"Well, sir-"

"Quickly, for fuck's sake!"

Scarlet swallowed. "We have a machine currently operational, but its armour isn't completed yet. At present, all it'll do is buy us a few hours."

"That's fine. Get it scrambled and stationed in Sector Eight, ready to leave as soon as Diamond Weapon hits dry land. It can't get to Midgar before that cannon fires."

"What about Sister R-"

"Don't worry about that. You just get that machine ready."

"...Understood, sir. Good luck to both of us."

"I hope so."

"Reeve?"

"Sir!"

"What's AVALANCHE doing?"

"They've seen Weapon moving and are flying back to Midgar as fast as is humanly possible to protect us, because they think Barrett's daughter is here."

"Excellent, maybe they'll delay it. You go find Alex and tell him I need him, then report to the nap room and focus on AVALANCHE. If they even think about entering Midgar, inform me at once!"

_So...Not Sephiroth, the Planet's moving first. Well, it's not getting us without a fight..._

Alex appeared at a run, urgency radiating from every fibre of his being.

"Sir, make this quick, because I have the defense of the cannon to oversee..."

"Weapon is moving on us, so I've pulled Scarlet from preparing the cannon. I need you to go find Professor Hojo and escort him to the cannon."

"Sir, no!"

"Do you think I like doing it? I don't have anyone else! The man's insane, but he's the best we have. When he gets there, if he does anything –anything at all- that's not directly linked to getting that cannon operational, you have my permission to behead him. If he survives that, use your imagination. Dismissed." Alex sprinted away.

Now, Rufus had a problem. He needed a commander for the forces defending the cannon. Heidegger had his hands full organizing the defense of the people, and he'd run out of commanders. If he took charge personally, he wouldn't be available if any new situations arose and everything might collapse. Unless...

"Palmer!"

"Hey-hey, sir! How-"

"Cut the crap, we don't have time for it anymore! I _know _you're not as stupid as you pretend, Dad told me, so don't waste my time. You were a gifted field commander during the Wutai war, if I remember correctly. The fate of the planet rests on whether or not you retain that ability, so don't even think about pretending to be just some stupid fat guy! Can you or can't you take charge of protecting the cannon?"

"...I can, sir." The voice was absolutely different from his normal jolly rumble. It was now cold, professional, and businesslike.

"Okay, you're up. If you don't fuck this up, and we both come out of it alive, I will personally ensure that nobody ever thinks about abolishing your department ever again. I'll put that in writing."

"Honour to serve, sir."

"Thank you. Now move out!" Palmer left, and Rufus was alone in his office, marveling at the chaos he had been left to deal with.

_Well, I've done everything I can. If Sephiroth doesn't take a hand I think I can handle anything else that comes up. Your move, Planet..._

- - - - - - - - - - -

Even further to the north, deep within the crater, someone said "3000 gil says Weapon is obliterated."

**What do I need money for? I'm a millennia old goddess! If I want something, I take it! **

"Is that so? Then why am I here? Why couldn't you destroy this planet without my help?"

**...Fine, 3000 gil it is. I think you're wrong. Weapon was far more of a threat to us than the other pathetic insects. **

"Might I remind you that these 'pathetic insects' defeated you in the first place, _without_ the aid of the Weapons?"

**No one living today has the same power as the Ancient Cetra! And Weapon was almost finished digging a path into the crater!**** I had to stop it! So I-**

"Used the Jenova cells in Hojo to suggest that Rufus use the Mako cannon, thus draining the planet of energy and removing the attention of Weapon from us. I _know_, and I still think it was a bad move. The cannon might penetrate the barrier, and what then? I can handle Weapon, but I can't kill thousands of Shinra troops and machines unaided,

not with my attention divided between maintaining Meteor, blocking Holy, and helping you with the barrier. They have nothing to lose, so they'll hit us with everything they have. Even if the Puppet came alone, it's not a foregone conclusion. Even I can only do so many things at once."

**The cannon won't penetrate the barrier. I'll have Hojo sabotage it.**

"Mother, wake up. Hojo won't be in charge of the cannon, I told you that. Machines are Scarlet's jurisdiction. And even if he somehow is, Rufus isn't going to let him blink without authorization, not after what happened before. There's nine reactors behind that blast. It could do anything."

**You mean- ****Oh –**

"God? Not really an appropriate expletive for a self proclaimed goddess, is it? Y'know, I'm having serious doubts about your plan. First you tell me to kill that Cetra, knowing that her soul in the Lifestream appealing to Holy is far more dangerous to us than her living soul. Next you tell me that Meteor is indestructible once summoned, and we've won. Then Shinra attacks it, and suddenly it's having trouble holding together. And now this. I'm beginning to wonder if I need you."

**Of course you need me. Son-**

"Oh, yeah, about that. I've thought over what the President said before I killed him. Remember? Another attempt that almost failed due to your bad planning?" Jenova lunged at him suddenly, and he skewered her contemptuously, adding a Fire2 for good measure.

"Nervous, are we? Well, while we were waiting for the Puppet in Nibelheim I caught up on some reading. And found repeated references to a woman named Lucrecia Crescent. _Crescent._ My name. Living in Nibelheim at around the time I was born. Quite a coincidence, wouldn't you say? It also explains why the Prez was so surprised that I didn't display any reaction when he mentioned dear old dad, because that means it would've been Hojo. While that fact would have been enough to make me kill myself in disgust if I wasn't already dead, it also explains why he said 'Donating cells is not motherhood.' See, I also read about the beginning of the SOLDIER and Jenova projects. It was quite interesting reading."

**Look, we can make a deal...You want godhood, I can-**

"One, that was part of our deal from the first, and you can't offer it again now. Two, I also read up on the First Crisis, and about some of the Cetra who supported you were all massacred and that people who help you generally end up taking the fall for your actions. Three, even if I could trust you to keep your word, I don't care about godhood. You got me killed. _I want my life back, you fucking bitch!"_ And with that, he dived deep into the Lifestream, raising a magical barrier of his own behind him. Jenova shrieked as she collided with it.

**You can't do this!**

"Why not? You're confident your plan can't fail, so whatever is there to worry about? You can't _possibly _believe that your barrier will fall, not after all the assurances you gave me, can you? But given the small possibility that you are wrong, if your barrier falls, then the hordes of angry troops will get to tear you apart before they get to me. Which of course, _won't _happen, because the shield _will_ hold, because you _weren't_ attempting to use me as a shield and then betray me and rise to godhood all on your own over my corpse, were you? So you have nothing to worry about."

**I'll get you for this!**

"Heheheh. Don't play games with me, 'Mother.' You're outta your league. You don't survive as long as I did as Shinra General without developing an instinct for treachery. " He descended deeper, and she was left pounding futilely against his barrier, cursing the fact that the most powerful puppet she could find was also one of the most intelligent, and had had the sense to conceal that fact.

- - - - - - - - -

Sitting on a flight of stairs inside a house he'd broken into and bleeding heavily from a head wound, Evan had now realized that something was seriously wrong. Some of the AVALANCHE copycats were far too well equipped for a terrorist group. They appeared to be equipped with some experimental stuff that official Shinra employees hadn't even heard of. For example, the guys he'd run into not so long ago had been dressed in armour suits apparently made entirely from materia chips, so they had a whole range of powerful weapons at their disposal. Admittedly, all the offensive magic incorporated in the suit dragged their endurance levels way down, so if you got off the first shot that was that, but if there was more than one or they struck first you probably weren't going to survive. The fact that he was now alone was a testament to that fact. One of his companions had exploded inside his armour after a direct hit by Bahamut, and the other one had bolted. He'd taken down their attackers alone, but a narrow miss by an Ice3 had left him with a head wound from shrapnel, so he'd broken into an empty house to treat it.

It had come as a surprise to find that Palmer was now commanding the defense of the cannon. Alex had been called away for some reason and now the Exec in charge of Space Exploration had been called in to fill the gap. The man was proving a surprisingly adept general, if less talented than Alex, and so far the cannon remained unscathed.

Now fully healed, he glanced up at noises outside. Several armoured soldiers

were passing by outside the window. Taking a moment to switch on his CD player, he flung a grenade through the window, jumping through and opening fire on the survivors as it exploded. Now wasn't the time for Queensbury rules.

**At home...**

**Drawing pictures,**

**Of mountaintops, **

**With him on top...**

As the last corpse fell, he was forced to dive back into cover as a gun turret on wheels at the end of the street fired on him, bullets sparking off his armour. Two heavily armoured men bearing rocket launchers also set up beside the turret, chipping away at the heavy but not indestructible crate he was using as cover. He was almost sure he was going to die, but then some bright spark shooting at him decided to roll barrels of explosive fuel at him. Unslinging his rifle, he did manage to explode it prematurely, but he missed the first two shots, and it wasn't close enough to actually hurt the shooters. He'd never been good at sniping. But, once the explosion obscured him from view, he sprinted out from cover and reached the relative safety of a stone pillar and decorative wall that was part of someone's porch. As the turret's fire resumed, he had another stroke of luck as it continued firing at the crate he'd been pinned behind previously, assuming he was still there. Not that it meant much except gaining him a little more time. He was still stuck here. If he fired on them, he'd probably miss, and give away his position. They were too far away for grenades, and were out of range of everything except his rifle.

_How many of them is there, that they can afford to spend this much time and ammo pinning down __one insignificant soldier, as opposed to just leaving the turret here and sending the others to find another route?_

**Clearly I remember,**

**Picking on the boy...**

**Seemed a harmless little fuck...**

It was always interesting seeing which song came up when. Some believed there was some entity making sure that the song that played was always appropriate to the moment and had some symbolic meaning. Curious, and resigned to the fact that for the moment he couldn't do anything about the people shooting at him, he pressed the next track button to see if they were right.

**Kyle...you ate my fucking pretzel.**

In spite of the dire situation, he collapsed laughing, wondering how that could possibly be applicable to what was happening. Thankfully, the gunfire drowned out the sound, and they continued chipping away at the crate he wasn't behind. It was almost completely penetrated by now.

The crate suddenly shattered and the gunfire abruptly cut off. There was a brief moment where he thought they were going to advance, but that was quickly shown to be a mistake, as two Guard Hounds slunk out from behind the pile of crates, and stalked forward, moving swiftly and silently. They were being used as insurance against an ambush. These guys were smarter than they seemed.

_Still...there's only one of me, there's no need for so much caution. Why not just charge? It's not like I can pull a Death Machine out of my pocket. Sure, I'll kill some of em if they do, but they're losing a lot of time here with this standoff. It doesn't make sense.__ It's like they've been ordered specifically to cause as much chaos as possible, as opposed to actually stopping the cannon. But...to what point? _

He was interrupted in these thoughts by the Guard Hounds coming into range, and dispatched them, and thus re routing the gun and rocket fire to his new cover. Now with nothing to lose by shooting back, he did so, which didn't reduce the volume of ammo being poured onto his position by much, although an explosion and a scream suggested some damage had been done. The decorative carvings on the pillar began to chip and crack.

_If I get out of this alive, I'm gonna get in trouble for that. Oh well..._

Track three started playing.

**Hey ****now, you're an all star,**

**Get your game on,**

**Go play!**

**Hey now, you're a rock star,**

**Get the show on, **

**Get paid!**

He fired at them a couple more times. No screams this time. They'd learned to be more careful.

_Guess that's that. Now it's just a matter of time._

He glanced across at the door in the porch he was hiding in. It was heavy oak, he couldn't break it down. A grenade might, but the pillar he was hiding behind was too close and would blow him up as well. The window he'd jumped out to get here in the first place was across the street from him. To get there, he'd have to run across in full view of the shooters, and would probably be riddled. Besides, it was too high to get back into from this side.

Just as he was giving up totally, the aforementioned door opened to reveal an old man beckoning. Not one to ignore a deux ex machina at a time like this, Evan decided he had nothing to lose and ran through.

"Who are you?"

"Nobody. Just an ex soldier not about to let somebody die if I can stop it. Plus with your testimony maybe I can convince Shinra to pay for the scrollwork on that pillar." As Evan sat down facing the door, he then said "Aren't you leaving?"

"Yep. But I got an errand first. You might want to get out of sight." His rescuer hesitated, then left the room.

_Now you have to come in close if you want to flush me out!_

Shortly afterwards, a heavily armoured soldier charged the door, which hadn't been re locked and thus burst open. A full thirty bullet magazine ripped through him before he could raise his weapon. Having given his pursuers reason to be careful in their advance, he then left the house through another door and circled until he came on their position from behind and opened fire. Although he did say "Hi, fellas." he didn't do so until _after _he'd started shooting. If there was one thing the army had taught him, it was to shoot first and quip later.

From behind him, somebody said "Hi." He whirled, having dispatched the enemies at the turret, but not nearly fast enough, and fell forwards as something punched him between his shoulder blades. At this range, a direct hit from a shotgun should have killed him, but miraculously, his armour held. Two men picked him up and turned him around, holding his arms, but not divesting him of his weapons for some reason. A woman in a cowboy hat with an incredibly heavy looking rocket launcher pointed it at him and barked "Why were you shooting at your own soldiers?"

"My soldiers? Aren't they yours?" Now that he looked at them, they were a very different breed from the others, with a ragtag look more typical of terrorist groups. There were about fifteen of them, no two armed with the same, although the weapons they had were carried with an easy familiarity.

"No! Where would we get supplies like that?"

"Well, they were shooting at me, and had plenty of time to see my uniform. That's all I can tell you. Maybe they're a different group?"

"Jessie! Dragonfly to your right!" The AVALANCHE members looked up as the helicopter flew overhead. Without so much as pausing to brace herself, Jessie fired the rocket launcher directly at the Dragonfly, which never had a chance. Dragonfly model helicopters were designed for fast deployment of paratroopers, not head to head combat. Their armour was light, for fast movement over durability, designed for withstanding infantry fire, not heavy explosives, and Jessie's shell shredded it easily. Turning back to Evan, she was about to say something, when the glow from Sister Ray's barrel distracted them. Light gathered as it charged, to the point where people were forced to look away or be blinded.

From his position in the street, Evan didn't see the shell obliterate Diamond Weapon, but he saw every window in the city shatter, and he saw the projectiles flying overhead, and he saw the top of the Shinra building explode, and he heard the alarms flare anew a few seconds later, and in a sudden flash of insight he screamed at the sky as he realized that if every window in the city had shattered, _every _window in the city had shattered, including the viewing windows for the tanks containing Hojo's research specimens, whose implants, now that Sephiroth had destroyed the remote that Tseng had carried, could only be activated from the President's office control panel. Which had just disappeared in a blaze of light.

"Oh shit!"

The cry, echoed by thousands of throats all across the city as they came to the same conclusion, briefly drowned out the ringing in his ears.


	27. Utter Chaos

_Dirge of Cerberus spoilers.__ Do not read if you haven't completed that game._

**Utter Chaos**

Alex, on the cannon (with his rapier drawn and laid across the back of Hojo's neck as he worked), was able to assess the situation immediately as soon as he saw the windows shatter and the top of Shinra Bldg explode. But he couldn't just leave his current assignment. God knew what Hojo would do left unchaperoned. Withdrawing his blade, he picked up his phone and dialed Reconnaissance Division.

"Sir? We're kinda busy right now..."

"What's the status of Weapon?"

"Right now? Dead."

"You're sure?"

"Unless it can regenerate from being literally cut in half...the blast tore right through it and kept going until it hit the North Cave's barrier."

"And what happened?"

"We don't have any firsthand data yet, it's pretty far, but that disciplinary garrison the president set up says it's down. We don't know that for a fact, but they are adamant that it's the truth."

"I'll take their word for it. Either way, there's no immediate threat. Thanks." He hung up, and requested a squad of as many transport helicopters as Heidegger could spare from his evacuation program. This turned out to be two, which he used to get all the techs back to their other stations, until just he and Hojo remained.

"You next, sir."

"I don't think so. We might need to fire again."

"I don't have time for this! Come or get dragged, sir."

_Every second wasted here is one where people are dying down below! I can't lose time here!_

Incredibly, Hojo tried to draw his handgun. Alex was so surprised he almost got there, but his response was enough that Hojo's weapon hit the ground long before it could be fired. His severed hand accompanied it.

"That was stupid, sir." He kicked the hand off the platform they were standing on, making sure it fell a long distance. Unwilling to waste more time here, he then whirled and impaled the professor Hojo in half. Entering the hovering helicopter, he directed it to the Shinra Building, hoping he could get to Rufus' control panel before too many died. Under the circumstances, almost certainly a futile hope.

- - - - - - - - -

Through the agony, Professor Hojo exulted in his genius. He'd been right. The Jenova in him wouldn't let him die until he'd served his purpose. Draining the planet of as much energy as possible. An admirable aim. He no longer what happened to either the planet or Jenova, but he was discovering that parental instinct reared its ugly head at the most inconvenient times. He'd do what he could for his son, after which his fragment program would allow him to survive the calamity. As an organic cell, the Jenova attempting to control him should not be able to follow him into the network, so when the fragments of his mind were reformed, he would be free.

_I am a genius! I can fight you, Jenova. I can't win, not in this body, but if I can avoid giving you control for a few minutes more, you have lost. Ahahahaha! A genius!_

A brief note of sanity briefly flickered through his mind, wondering what sort of person _thinks _a maniacal laugh, and whether Jenova already had control, before being ruthlessly quashed. He was never wrong! He was a genius! A genius! And now his plans were bearing fruit. In fact, they had succeeded beyond his expectations. Although he'd organized some of his more human experiments to pose as AVALANCHE members to distract Shinra's attention from the cannon, he hadn't expected _all_ his specimens to escape. Now it was utter chaos, and nobody would still be paying attention to the cannon until it was too late, especially since Alex had supposedly killed him. Genius! Pure genius!

Slowly and painfully, he began dragging himself towards the Mako Cannon's control panel. His remaining hand reached for the Restore materia in his arm, but he couldn't focus properly and only succeeded in displacing it from the slot and sending it rolling across the platform, where it fell through a grating and shattered into a thousand pieces below. He sighed inwardly. This was going to be a long struggle, but it would bear fruit. After all, he was a genius!

- - - - - - - - - - - ­-

Jessie, if that was her name, was shaken from her trance by the approach of another Dragonfly. This one had paratrooper doors open and was raking the street below with bullets. Not having reloaded her rocket launcher yet, Jessie and her gang were forced to scatter, leaving him alone in the centre of the street with no cover. A volley of rockets exploded around him, for some reason not locking on. The pilot seemed to be pretty inept. With nowhere to run, he rolled upright and climbed into the seat of the gun turret, kicking away the corpse of the previous user.

As soon as the pilot realized what he was doing, six soldiers came out on the side rails, in an attempt to drop down and draw his fire, simultaneously firing a volley of rockets. This was an abominable decision, as as soon as they swung out, he swept the turret's barrel across and riddled five of them before they landed. The sixth got down, but Evan was forced to ignore him as he focused on the Dragonfly, holding his nerve as the rockets closed in. Just before they impacted, he rolled out of the seat as the rockets shredded it into shrapnel, a jagged edge of which sliced across his hand. The explosion was much more violent than he'd expected, picking him up and flinging him against a nearby stone wall. The Dragonfly made one more circuit, and when he didn't get up, moved on. He played dead for a while, but rose when Palmers voice finally spoke again, not over the street speakers, as he had previously, but via his personal PHS.

"Okay people, listen up. You've probably realized what's happened in Hojo's manor by now so I won't waste time. I've locked down each sector and his manor's outer wall, but after sector seven went down there was some disruption to the lockdown system, so the system might not be foolproof. If you're currently stationed in Sectors 8, 1, or 2 get off the streets now! You're being recalled. We don't need to protect the cannon anymore and hopefully the specimens and the AVALANCHE people will annihilate each other and save us some trouble. I can't send pickup choppers for you, and you know what that means, but get out of there now as best you can. Good luck!"

Hojo's manor was in sector 1. That was the reason AVALANCHE had hit it first, killing two birds with one stone, stopping both the reactor's harvesting of Mako and crippling Shinra's capability to create monsters in defiance of nature. No such luck, unfortunately. When building his home/menagerie, Hojo had built a small private Mako reactor on the premises in case of just such an occurrence. It was also the reason Sector 1 station had always been regarded as drudge duty. It was assumed nobody would try to bring down the reactor and thus the layer of emergency measures against a mass escape it powered. What this meant to Evan right now was a vastly increased chance of a grisly death within the next few minutes.

With the city in lockdown mode, there were two ways of getting out of sector 1. First, the central pillar. This was a long distance to travel, and heavily fortified by Scarlet's arsenal as part of the automatic security measures protecting the Shinra Building that automatically fell into place when lockdown was activated. Secondly, the Winding Tunnel. This was closer and safer once he got into it, but the nearest entrance (ironically, Sector 1 Station, the place where this sorry chapter of his life had begun) would bring him close to the perimeter of Hojo's estate...

_I__ wonder is it possible for things to get any worse? Knowing my luck, probab-_

It was _exactly_ at this point that the forgotten Paratrooper Number Six opened fire.

_Typical._

- - - - - - - -

Alex looked up at the Shinra building towering above him. The anti aircraft defenses meant he couldn't fly directly to the President's control panel without getting shot down. The elevators were broken by the impact with the building. That left the stairs. Seventy floors worth...

_That's a long way up...and I'll have chaos to deal with once I get there. I don't know how AVALANCHE pulled it off. Still, while I hesitate, people are dying. Oh, fuck it!_

He set off.

- - - - - - - - ­ ­-

He took down the paratrooper pretty quickly, but the gunfire attracted the attention of the Dragonfly again, which chased him down the street, bullets sparking off his armour, five corpses still dangling from the rails. With no cover and no gun turret, he couldn't do anything except shoot the rockets out of the air if he could, dodge them if he couldn't, and trust his armour to hold out against the bullets.

After a time, the pilot got tired of his surprising durability, and actually tried to charge him with the helicopter. Another bad decision. Once he was beneath the helicopter, none of its weapons could reach him, and with the paratrooper doors jammed open by the hanging corpses, it wasn't difficult to lob in a grenade. And the pilot didn't even notice, despite the fact that he had to have cameras in the underbelly of the chopper. The helicopter helpfully veered away in order to target him again, so when the grenade blew he didn't even have to jump clear of the explosion. His Luck Plus materia appeared to be in fine working order.

Casting a Cure3 on himself, he began searching for somewhere to hide until things settled down. Just as he found a likely looking abandoned warehouse, a third Dragonfly appeared at the end of the street and he had to race for the door. This pilot was a lot more competent than the first and he barely got through, despite having a long head start on his attacker and being an excellent sprinter, as mentioned previously. A volley of rockets targeting the wall of the warehouse with the aim of collapsing it before he reached it almost succeeded in sealing him out, but he got there at the expense of being half buried in rubble as the wall collapsed around him. But, on the plus side, it also sealed everything else out, including the Dragonfly. This would make an excellent refuge. The problem would by getting out before he starved to death or Meteor hit.

Tenth floor. The building was eerily quiet, with dust sifting down and the occasional missing step making footing treacherous. Alex was still going strong. He wasn't one of the nuts who climbed these stairs for exercise when they were bored, but he had a lot more endurance than even most in SOLDIER. Still, he had sixty odd floors to go. Plus a fight on his hands once he got there, if the office defenses were activated. He sped up, wondering how tired he'd be before he got there and cursing the unreliability of Shinra's elevator system

-

The second volley of rockets caught him by surprise, blowing shrapnel all across the room. It also relieved some of the weight of the debris he was buried in and he was able to scramble free just before an Ultima obliterated the rest. The Dragonfly had vanished, but it had left two of the Materia chip soldiers to deal with him. He got number one, but as he fired on the second his bullets skated off the edge of a hastily created Barrier. Next thing he knew, he'd been knocked off his feet by a Bolt2 and Sleipnir was charging at him. Odin's eyes met his briefly in a speculative glance, measuring. For a fraction of a second he looked to be about to attack with his sword, but then he shook his head, gave him a mocking salute and disappeared.

"Come back!" the summoner howled "God damn unreliable eidolons!"

A massive lance suddenly crashed through the ceiling, drilling a three foot deep crater where Odin had last seen Evan standing. The aforementioned ceiling then collapsed, burying them both. Evan was able to avoid the worst of it by diving towards the nearest wall, and the other soldier was shielded by his Barrier, so they both survived. The Materia Chip soldier subsequently destroyed a chunk of debris with a fire3, igniting some of the pieces at the fringes of the blast. As the fire picked up in intensity a flurry of frantic water spells quenched it. There was a hiss, probably an ether bottle being opened, and then more high powered destructive spells. Evan, who had been patiently digging himself out while this was going on (he had a small amount of space, but he was sealed in), fired at the only piece of his opponent he could see through the wreckage, a target so obscured he couldn't even tell what it was. He was rewarded by a shattering of the Barrier, a scream, and a more substantial, glassish breed of shattering. His target moved aside, and a muted orange glow could be seen through the wreckage –A regen spell. This was followed by another Barrier, and a lethal counter of a Bolt3 which barely missed him. The wall he was sheltering under gave an ominous groan.

"Y'know, if you keep doing that, you're just going to kill us both if there's another collapse."

"You broke my Odin materia, you bastard!" Not 'You shot me' but 'You broke my materia'. Odd.

"Sorry. I'll remember to just kill you instead next time." But he'd stopped firing off spells, which was a slight improvement. Gunfire rattled outside the wall. The quarantine was probably still in force, then. And he'd gotten himself into a standoff with some maniac carrying enough magic on his person to bring down the Shinra building by himself, even without Weapon's help. Still, he was safer here than on the streets. Probably.

-

Twentieth floor. The people who climbed this stairs for exercise had occasional rest points along the route, where they stored curatives and other helpful items. Someone had been thoughtful enough to leave behind an Aero Combatant's propeller blade. Alex snagged it as he passed, activated it, and was soon hurtling upwards at a much faster rate.

-

Suddenly, the Materia Chip Soldier started laughing and fired off a number of unidentifiable spells.

"Bios, my elusive friend. All the destruction, no dangerous forces that might collapse walls."

"Genius. In fact, Hojoesque. Why didn't I think of that?" The corrosive slime began eating into the debris at an alarming rate. An unexpectedly lucky hit splashed off the wall next to him, of which some splashed back across him, seeping through the gash in his glove made by the Dragonfly earlier, which hurt like hell until he downed an antidote to neutralize it. The MCS indulged in some stress relieving maniacal laughter at his scream, and picked up the pace of his magic flood. The slime was highly corrosive, but quick to evaporate, so he had to keep the spells flowing freely, interspersed by the occasional hiss and gulp of ether being swallowed.

Although the slime didn't have explosive force behind it, the debris it was destroying was still holding up the building, and soon there was another collapse, with much the same result as last time. The only real difference was that this time, the top of the debris was higher.

While the MCS had been firing off spells, Evan had been patiently digging his way along the side wall of the building, looking for a door. What he'd found was a ladder, leading to a platform with a window nearby. If he'd climbed it, however, he'd have put himself within full view of the MCS, who'd just have shot him down with some spell. But now...the debris was high enough for him to get out unseen. Which he did. It was a long fall out the window, but he managed it.

So...now he was back on the streets, which were absolutely full of dangerous monsters and terrorists. Wonderful.

-

Fifthieth floor. The engine of the propeller abruptly died, and Alex nearly fell two floors before managing to get a grip on a banister and hauling himself back onto the stairs. Naturally, the propeller then flew from his grip, falling all the way back to the bottom of the stairwell with a crash. He had no time to lose. So he reluctantly heaved himself upright, and continued running up the stairs.

-

His route to sector 1 station was decorated by quite a few mangled corpses, Shinra soldiers and Avalanche copycats alike, accompanied by the occasional dumb civilian who hadn't got off the streets in time. What it didn't contain was signs of life, monster or otherwise. It seemed the wave of monsters breaking out had bypassed his warehouse while he'd been in there, and he was now inside their circle. Thank you, luck materia. For the first time he started wondering if he'd survive tonight. Previously, he had assumed the worst, as was his practice in recent times.

A manhole cover stirred twelve feet in front of him, before slowly rising. He tensed, raising his weapon, realized what it was, and was just about to fire when somebody else did it for him. The Manhole dropped back in place along with its raiser, and didn't rise again.

"Fucking pests." somebody else said from the side of the street.

Upon discovery of a mysterious stranger, the natural response is to shoot first and ask questions later. It might be an ally, but it might be an enemy. The one thing you know is that it isn't you, so why take chances and maybe get killed? Shinra techs had gotten around this by equipping a sleeping gas feature to Attack Squad Machine guns, so you could shoot, check your facts, and then if you were right, pull the trigger again, and if you were wrong, no harm done. The man at the side of the street collapsed, and on closer inspection a couple of seconds later he was identified as Anthony Reynolds, a soldier Evan knew pretty well. When he woke up, they continued on together. There was no conversation, as both were focused and tense for any approach from the shadows. Now that the major gun battles were over, Evan had now turned off his CD player.

Once they did find opponents, it was a lot easier with two of them. They were trained for a series of skirmishes in twos and threes, and the grenade through the paratrooper doors routine was a lot easier when you had somebody else to draw attention away from you. That had always been a weakness of the Dragonfly model. The time they came closest to dying was when they were attacked by several dozen floating jellyfish –Hojo's Halo-the Flood inspired creations. But, naturally, things are never that easy, and, just before they reached the entrance, this was proven to be true.

-

Sixtieth floor. He was now forced to slow down as he crossed the guard's lounge. At this height, when the windows were all shattered, the wind speed alone could sweep you away if you didn't take care. Once inside the four walls of the stairwell, he was sealed inside by a helpful guard, and began safely running upstairs again. He caught his breath at the top, knowing he'd have to fight his way up to the President's office. To prevent interference, Rufus had ensured that the floor directly below his office was flooded with powerful monsters. Drawing his rapier, he unsealed the door to the stairwell and burst through, ducking and rolling before spinning to face the door and resealing it. The last thing he needed was monsters escaping and terrorizing the building. The reason he was here was to minimize casualties. All this happened in the three quarters of a second he had to take stock before he was attacked by all the wonders that Shinra had to offer.

-

Within and around the wreckage of Sector 1 Station, a pitched battle was taking place between research specimens, false AVALANCHE members, and the station's security systems. Nearby, two Dragonflies were circling a Behemoth, pounding it with their artillery, while a Flood controlled MCS was firing off spells in every direction to no particular purpose. Two more Behemoths were locking horns not far away. A team of MCS and normal heavy armoured artillery had established a small knot of organization against the chaos, perched on the wreckage of a building, and obliterating anyone who came near them. The melee stretched on and on, impassable. Evan glanced across.

"What do you think?"

"Not much."

"That's what I thought. I know this area pretty well, I've been patrolling it for years, ad the best place to hide around here's that steel mill two streets ba-"

"Head's up!"

Evan sidestepped as Bahamut swooped on them. The projectile he launched gouged a crater several feet deep out of the street, and the nearby building collapsed, drawing attention directly to them from the mob below, from which several fighters peeled off to charge them. The MCS who'd summoned Bahamut, the same one Evan had encountered earlier, grinned from his position behind them. He was looking battered, with many of his materia chips cracked or missing, but triumphant.

"Found you!"

-

Glass crunched under his feet as he ran, briefly outpacing the pursuing Behemoth, before turning to face it like a bullfighter. Also like a bullfighter, he sidestepped the charge an instant before impact, hacking off the Behemoth's head with a single stroke as it presented itself and somersaulting clear of the falling body. Now alone in the empty room (except for several dozen corpses), he wiped the blood from his sword on a corpse, before heading for the door, just as a pretty woman staggered through it and collapsed, bleeding heavily. He raised his rapier.

"Who are you?"

She staggered to her feet and tried to speak, but was impeded by said mouth stretching like elastic and sprouting several tentacles which wrapped themselves around his wrists and yanked him forwards with amazing strength. Her mouth stretched to around where the back of her neck should have been, displaying multiple rows of sharp, pointed teeth. Instead of resisting the tentacles, he used the momentum to propel him forward and skewered her. This didn't make a lot of difference, so he sliced upwards, cutting her head in half, and slashed the base of her tentacles, which went limp and released him. Dodging an Ice2, he hit her with an Aero, knocking her over, and nailed her to the floor, which finally seemed to work as she dissolved into red ash. Two other tentacled humans ran through the door and faced him.

_You __don't have to kill them all! Just get to Rufus' desk!_

The man on the left extended a pair of feathery wings.

_Can't let him fly out of range...I guess you do have to kill them all._

_Fantastic._

-

Evan fired an experimental shot, and when it skated off the barrier, he knew he was dead. He had no cover this time and no offensive capabilities as long as that Barrier existed. Then a Fire2 hit the MCS and he went down. Evan glanced across. Reynolds shrugged. "What?"

They turned to face the oncoming mob. Traditionally, there are two ways for outnumbered soldiers to position themselves when facing certain death. Back to back, to stop people sneaking up behind you, or thirty feet apart, to avoid both being killed by the same attack. Given the amount of artillery the enemy had at their service, the second option was best. Then, with nowhere to run, Evan charged. This wasn't as suicidal as it looked. Now that they'd been spotted, he'd be cut down before he got a hundred yards if he fled. He'd actually be safer in the melee, as somebody alone was an easy target for potshots. And this was such an unexpected action that his attackers hesitated and he had an extra few seconds to bring them down before they counterattacked. His warcry, unfortunately, was less impressive.

"Why the fuuuuck-"

-

He'd killed five more of the deformed humans, but one of them had flown out behind him and wrapped tentacles around him from out the window. He was now hovering seventy floors up, wrapped securely in tentacles with probably poisonous spines. Two more battered wingless specimens watched numbly from the inside, severely wounded. Wings flapping furiously to hold his weight, his captor spoke for the first time.

"Chop now...you fall. Ha. Ha. Ha."

_This's dicey...but what've I got to lose?_

He sliced through the tentacles binding him.

-

"-does this keep happening!?"

As a child of Midgar's alleys, he knew how to stay alive in a mob. Keep to the fringes, but don't break away entirely. Don't look for trouble –attack only those who are or soon will attack you. Realise that there's no such thing as an unworthy opponent –Respect everyone, and remember that a dying man can still kill you. Don't spare ammo –there'll be plenty of corpses to loot. Don't try to look pretty-be as quick and efficient as you can.

Following these rules, he was still alive, and was already on his ninth kill, although he hadn't bothered counting and didn't know this. Not having time to turn on the CD player, his ears were ringing. A guard hound tried to tear his throat out; he grabbed it by the tentacle and flung it away, firing on it before it landed. A Quake3 cast from a Dragonfly succeeded in thinning out the mob considerably, knocking Evan off his feet. That irritating Flood controlled MCS was finally brought down by it. A man bearing down on him with a Strifesque six foot sword was kneecapped, and impaled himself when he fell heavily on his own weapon. A bullet sliced across Evan's jaw, inches away from a mortal wound, but he was occupied by three more attackers and hadn't time to search for his other one. He brought down one of the three, but the flow of combat carried him past the other two without engaging. Bullets were sparking off his armour with the regularity of rainfall, but it was holding. His hands, feet, and face were vulnerable, however. Face to face with a creature he had no name for, some sort of weird wasp-beetle-human hybrid, his bullets bouncing from chitin armour at least equal to his own, his weapon was snatched from his grasp, and he fled, drawing his sidearm as the press shielded him from harm, although the noises from behind suggested that the wasp was surprisingly adept at operating a machine gun.

Now with only eighteen shots in his clip, as opposed to the fifty in the magazine of his previous weapon, he had to pick his targets more carefully. Another weird insect thing confronted him, but this one was vulnerable as his gunshots penetrated its two huge bulbous eyes. Running past the thrashing creature, two men with swords attacked in perfect tandem, and three clips later he hadn't managed to bring either down. A dual attack gashed his armour, just short of penetrating.

Not far away, the Behemoth managed to dispatch one of the two circling Dragonflies by materializing a steel block above it, which plummeted with devastating force. Nobody knew why they had the ability to do that, but no one could deny it worked, especially as if they were on the receiving end, they had about three seconds to live. The Dragonfly was smashed against the ground and exploded, and the other one promptly fled, rocketing up under heavy fire from below. The Behemoth glanced around, roaring its irritation, and charged in a random direction, which happened to be directly behind his two attackers, both of whom somehow sensed it coming and somersaulted lightly away. Its horns caught him a glancing blow that sent him sliding across the cobbles for over twenty feet. He lost his weapon. Rolling aside, he tossed a grenade at it. The odds of what happened next happening had to be thousands to one against. The Behemoth roared in triumph, and in doing so, swallowed the grenade. Its armour would have held out against the blast, but the inside of its throat, unfortunately, was not a place its evolution had thought to grow armour.

_Thank you, Elena, for forgetting to ask for these back..._

Getting unsteadily to his feet, he was staggering towards the Station entrance (the mob was now considerably thinned out), when someone hit him across the back of the head with what felt like an iron bar, and everything went black.

-

Catching the ends of the severed tentacles, Alex held on as his flying adversary instinctively retracted them, before letting go, and holding on to his adversary's shoulders with one hand and slicing off his wings with the other. As his no longer airborne foe began to fall, Alex planted his feet along its stomach and used it as a platform to propel himself up, catching the balcony outside the Presidents office in both hands and vaulting over it. Staggering into the office, ignoring Rufus' body slumped over the controls, he examined the desk controls. Most of them were incomprehensible, but two were clearly labeled. The one that controlled communications and the coffee dispenser.

-

"Owww..." Staggering to his feet for the second time in what his watch said was less than five minutes, he found himself alone except for corpses. He examined himself. His Materia and Curative items were all irreparably smashed. Most of them were held securely, but he was still sporting several cuts from broken glass. He had a hell of a headache, but his skull, when he reached up, was intact. He had a sharp pain in his hand, but it wasn't until he tried to pick up a weapon that he realized what was wrong.

"Broken wrist...shit." Another Behemoth must've stepped on him while he was unconscious. Casting around for a weapon he could use one handed, he settled on a concentrated laser gun with a Mako battery and was able to get into the station and winding tunnel without incident.

-

Rufus stirred.

"Sir! Where's the implant control? Sir!"

He murmured something inaudible.

"I can't hear you, sir!"

"Jacket...pocket..." Rufus rasped hoarsely. "Are you...getting me...help?"

"Right now the citizens of Midgar are my priority but I'll see what I can do." He dug out the remote. It was a toggle switch, labeled 1-10, with ACTIVE above one, INACTIVE above eight, and DEATH above ten. Alex clicked it to nine, and hesitated. A blinking light was above the communications switch. He flicked it and a frightened looking tech appeared onscreen

"President Shinra? You're alive-"

"He's alive, but you aren't talking to him. Get a med team up here fast or that status will be remedied. I've deactivated the monsters so it's safe up here unless you get blown away by the wind, so tell them to be careful. Where's Heidegger?"

"Um...sir? There's something you should know..."

He made his decision about the remote.

-

Having successfully made it back to Shinra Bldg, exhausted, battered, and hungry, Evan was understandably pissed when a helicopter landed in front of him before he could enter to sign off his shift. Especially as the pilot barked at him "You! AVALANCHE is in the city! The real one, not the copycats. Get in, we're going hunting. And don't you dare tell me your hurt, because so is everyone else. Come on, get in!"

_Why is it that this never happens to anyone else..._

---

Sorry about the wait, I wanted to get it right. My action scenes have always been a weak point, so it took a while. I've always wanted to write a first class SOLDIER in action, hope I did him justice. There's something else I should say, but I can't remember what it is. Please R&R.


	28. Damage Control

**Damage Control**

The helicopter was fifty foot up before the pilot finally started laughing.

"Okay, I lied...you're not going hunting. I'm a courier, commissioned to pick up survivors and take them home. You got anywhere to go in Midgar?"

"If you're lying, bear in mind that I am going to shoot you."

"I'm not...telling someone they're going home and taking them to a warzone'd just be cruel."

"So? You'd still do it if you were ordered to."

"Fair point. So...you got anywhere to go?"

"No...I'm stationed in Junon."

"Okay...Nap Room at HQ's now covered in broken glass, but enough Shinra soldiers are dead now that there'll be a vacancy for you at pretty much any barracks we head to. Any preference? I bet you're tired."

"Just don't put me in Sector 1."

"Deal. I'm just gonna do some more sweeps first. What happened to your hand?"

"Dunno...I think I was stepped on."

"You think?"

"Somebody hit me, got knocked cold, when I woke up nobody was around and had a broken wrist. Maybe I fell on it."

"Oh well...there's some curative stuff in the box on your left if you need it. Don't use it all, there's gonna be a lot more injured soldiers in here before too much longer."

"Thanks."

The helicopter swooped low over the streets. Evan fell into a fitful, not-restful-at-all-but keeping-me-alive doze.

- - -

"What? That's impossible!" A terrified looking tech had just informed Alex that not only was Hojo alive, he was attempting to destroy the city by firing Sister Ray again.

"In theory it was impossible for anyone to reach the President's office through all those monsters, but you managed it...sir."

_At least I made an impression._

"Okay...what've we got? Military wise, I mean. Put me on to Heidegger or Scarlet. Even Reeve!"

"They're...not here. We don't have much. All soldiers are committed, injured, or gone to ground. The only machines active are committed, and the inactive ones had their power drained to funnel all available power to Sister Ray. There's anti aircraft Weapons on the cannon, so he can protect himself from the air. We really wanted nothing to be able to interfere with Sister Ray. He's in one of the safest places in Midgar."

_Hojo...you sneaky bastard, I'm not finished with you yet._

"Where are they?"

"Heidegger and Scarlet imprisoned Reeve, he's in a cell. Then they went after AVALANCHE."

"AVALANCHE are here! Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't have time."

"...Okay, okay...I can handle this...hmm...what about the Turks?"

"Some of the junior members are injured, but the officers are okay and uncommitted."

"Okay...here's what you do. Send the Turks into the Winding Tunnel. If AVALANCHE are trying to get near the cannon they'll have to go in there sooner or later. I want them to flush them towards Hojo. Don't kill them, just keep them moving towards Hojo, maybe they'll kill him for us, and we can finish off the winner. Get a message to Heidegger and order – sorry, I mean strongly suggest- that he stay out of the way until after AVALANCHE attack Hojo. Got it?"

"Yes...sir. Do you have the authority to do that?"

"Let's find out, shall we? I'm taking full responsibility if this doesn't work."

"Thank you, sir. Good luck."

"You too."

-

Downstairs, Palmer looked up at the tech, near the President's chair at the other end of the conference room.

"Why didn't you put him on to me? He asked for 'the Execs.'

"Sorry, sir. Didn't think-

"-I cared about anything other than food?"

"No, sir."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence. So...what are Heidegger and Scarlet using to go after AVALANCHE?"

"Proud Clod."

"The anti Weapon artillery?"

"Yep."

"Then they're dead."

"What?"

"You heard me. They're dead. Proud Clod wasn't designed for human targets. Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. You'd better make that call fast."

-

With medics now attending Rufus, and a team of porters tossing immobilized research specimens out windows, Alex was beginning to think he'd be able to salvage the situation when the tech below opened the connection again.

"Yes?"

"Heidegger's refusing to back down."

"Why?"

"Something about a past grievance."

"I'm telling him to postpone his revenge, not refrain from it."

"I told him that. Sorry."

"Well, at least AVALANCHE'll go down., even if it means we're all dead."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that."

"Palmer? What the-"

"-Listen to me. Proud Clod has some glaring weaknesses." He went on to outline them.

Alex sighed. "Much as I'd like to let em fry for being so stupid, Shinra'll need them before Meteor hits. What've we got?"

"Not much. A couple of rescue choppers picking up surviving soldiers."

"Okay. Tell them to keep sweeping, but if they find Proud Clod, circle until it either destroys or is destroyed by AVALANCHE, and be ready to pick up Heidegger and Scarlet if it's the latter. If there's nothing they can do, shadow AVALANCHE and try to make sure they reach Hojo. Understand?"

He turned away from the screen and looked at Rufus nearby, currently receiving a blood transfusion and painkillers, along with field surgery to keep him alive until he could be moved.

"Sir? I know you're seriously injured right now, but you're gonna have to teach me how to use the more complicated implant controls. Sir? Sir?"

With a visible effort, Rufus focused his eyes, effort required to think when you were full of morphine and in shock besides.

"O...kay. Watch...carefully."

-

Later, having had Rufus teach him how to work the implants, he'd activated the ones in Sector 8, ensuring AVALANCHE didn't get suspicious about the ease of their travels.

"Let's see...anyone get to Heidegger and Scarlet yet?"

"No. We know the President ordered Proud Clod stationed in Sector Eight, so they're probably still there. We have two rescue choppers ordered to direct their sweeping for survivors nearby, so they should find them soon."

"Passengers?"

"Four and nine respectively."

"Not many survivors then?"

"Well, we picked the two that were least busy. One of the guys actually made it back to the base of this building when he was picked up."

"Unlucky fucker. A couple of minutes and we'd have missed him. Anyone I know?"

"Is this relevant, sir? We have a crisis on our hands, after all."

"You're right, of course. Status?"

"Of the passengers? Most seriously injured but stable, one injured but functional, and two unhurt. Anyone critical was given priority to a medical station, naturally."

"So we have three ground troops if Clod's already destroyed, and they have to retrieve survivors. Are they in the same helicopter?"

"Two in one, one in the other. But if Clod's destroyed, they probably won't be needed."

"Recall the chopper with one functional, he's not much good to us alone. The one that has two functionals, is probably near AVALANCHE. Tell them to circle closer to the cannon. Why won't they be needed? No escape pods on Clod? That's not like Scarlet."

"No, you don't understand..."

"I don't need to, I won't be involved. Tell them what you told me. And –wait, someone else is trying to reach me."

It was Reno, sounding tired but satisfied. "We had contact, sir. With AVALANCHE. Engaged and withdrew, as ordered. From the direction they were heading, two possible destinations. The cannon...and Shinra Building."

"Well done. The building is locked down, and nobody's around anywhere except the 66th floor. Reeve knows that, so they aren't coming here. If they do, they can't do any harm. Casualties?"

"Nothing serious."

He closed the connection and returned his attention to Palmer. Who had his attention on the scouting helicopter. When he'd finished the speech, he refocused on Alex, slightly amused.

"At least we've quality men in that chopper."

"Yeah?"

"The two functionals are ex garrison rats from the Sector 1 Reactor garrison, named Shinra and Reynolds.

"Shinra? Evan Shinra?"

"That's him. You know him?"

"Sort of...and I'm wondering if I shouldn't recall that helicopter. The man's talented, I'll give him that, but he's not the type we need for a mission like this. He won't stick his neck out for Gya and Kya, and he'll let them die if he has to."

"Encouraging."

"Yep. But leave them there, they're all we have to spare-Oh God, I'm stupid. What's the status of Sister Ray, how soon'll it be operational? The city on the brink of destruction and I waste time with personality quirks!"

"...Climbing past 50"

"AVALANCHE aren't going to get there in time. I'd better handle it myself. If that bird I've just recalled is available, commandeer it for me. You handle anything else that comes up. I've work to do."

-

When Evan woke up, there were three other people in the back of the helicopter with him. He was disgusted at his lack of alertness –how could anyone with as many people trying to kill him as he had expect to live long if he fell asleep at times like this? At present the price on his head wasn't enough at a healthy twenty grand to persuade Shinra soldiers to jeopardize their jobs by killing him, but it was the _principle!_ He'd only woken up because he'd been kicked, thanks to a thoughtful soldier who decided to wake him up for a briefing via Palmer.

"Hello. I've some news for you. Heidegger and Scarlet are in all probability going to be dead before you can rescue them." Sounding slightly amused, he continued "I'll leave it to you as to whether that's good news or bad news."

_You know full well that that's every S__hinra soldier's dream..._

"How come?"

"A design flaw in Proud Clod. Who're you?"

"Name's Shinra. No relation. What flaw?"

"Not a flaw as such...an oversight. Clod's designed for Weapon, not human targets. So..."

"They're too small for its weapons to target?"

"Exactly. Also, as it was thought Weapon would concentrate its attacks further up, so the thickest armour is there. And...the fuel cells are in the feet. So it's feasible for them to penetrate the armour at the feet, and if they do, and puncture the fuel cell...the whole thing will melt. Even if it has an escape pod of some kind, the door will probably fuse closed."

"And you told them this?"

"Well...since Rufus, who brought me out of obscurity, is now dead, if they survive, so am I, as a perceived threat. So I felt little need to trouble them with such trivial details. Can I get the names of everyone on board, please?"

They were given to him, along with their statuses (functional or not) and he signed off.

After another few minutes of circling, they found their mark. A gigantic robot with all guns blazing is difficult to miss. One of the soldiers had the presence of mind to cast a silence spell on the engine as they neared. The dialogue was over, and the only thing on the participant's minds was to kill.

-

In the control room of Proud Clod, Heidegger and Scarlet screamed in triumph as the primary Weapon succeeded in knocking all three Avalanche members down, but they rolled upright and after a flurry of frantic healing spells, a battery of limit breaks forced them to rise out of range. A single warning light on the control panel flared amber. The Executives regarded it with interest, beginning to wonder if they were in danger, but the impulse was quashed. One warning light, among hundreds, surely was not a cause for worry. They responded with lesser weapons, the only ones they had designed for infantry assault, which AVALANCHE took in their stride. Wallace countered with a volley of bullets that caused a second amber light on the panel. Scarlet's counter caused a light burn that did little damage. Heidegger's counter did slightly more damage, forcing Cloud to heal himself instead of attack in the next round.

This pattern continued for some time, with AVALANCHE showing no signs of fatigue. The only thing that differed over time was the growing number of amber lights on the control panel, as well as a handful turning red. Shortly afterwards, the experimental Jamar Armour disintegrated, which caused Heidegger some concern.

"Scarlet, I am beginning to doubt the efficiency of your machine."

"The Jamar armour is completely separate from the main body, it doesn't mean we are weak. It was an experiment." Privately, however, she ran an analysis of AVALANCHE's attack. Mean while they continued fighting, while the warning lights appeared to stop multiplying. Then the results came back. Although Heidegger wasn't as technologically literate as Scarlet, her gasp was easy to read.

"Something wrong?"

"No...nothing. I'm just going to go check on the armour resilience; I'll be right back..."

He caught her wrist. "Why? We've cameras right here especially for that."

"They've been damaged by AVALANCHE."

"Oh? How can you tell? The warning light's not lit."

She sighed. " I've been analyzing AVALANCHE's attack, and there is a danger. Nothing to worry us yet...look here." He looked where she pointed. She drew her gun. He glanced back at the wrong moment, and his response was fast enough to knock the gun from her hand, but not fast enough to snap her neck, as was his intention. Meanwhile, AVALANCHE kept attacking, and the Proud Clod's autopilot countered, oblivious to what was happening inside it. And the gashes in the feet grew steadily deeper. The struggling Execs were equally oblivious to the growing number of warning lights on the control panel.

-

Circling their helicopter around the conflict, they heard both Execs scream as Clod's body began glowing, and melted, amazingly quickly, but a single speck emerged before it melted to scrap metal and skidded along the street behind the machine. AVALANCHE, not noticing this, continued on, but the helicopter grounded nearby. As a functional, if injured, soldier, Evan was one of the two who approached it. Heidegger's charred corpse was nearby but Scarlet was still alive.

"Get out of here...before the city blows...Save yourselves..." The two soldiers exchanged glances.

"Okay." They walked back to the helicopter.

_Five...Four...Thr-_

"Come back here, you dumb fucks!" They returned to her side, but she was already dead. This seemed odd, as her injuries seemed serious but not critical. Later, forensic teams determined that the COD was a bullet wound in her skull. They also found that Scarlet had strapped a bomb to Heidegger's ejector seat before they'd entered Proud Clod. He'd noticed, and later grabbed the outside of hers as she activated it, after retrieving her fallen gun and firing through the window at her. The extra weight had caused the pod to veer and crash into a building, killing him before they landed, but he'd gotten in one good shot, before then. What would have happened if both'd been less treacherous nobody knew. As their corpses were laid out in the helicopter, another helicopter was seen landing nearby.

-

Alex crept up the stairs just in time to hear the Valentine's raw rage in the word "You..." Valentine, apathy incarnate, rising towards incoherent rage? He had just missed the 'Seph's dad' revelation and so was suitably impressed.

"I was wrong..." Valentine said softly, "the one who should've slept was _you, Hojo!_

For the first time Professor Hojo sounded uncertain as he recognized his former research specimen.

"I...was defeated, by my desire to become a scientist." Valentine drew and focused directly between Hojo's eyes, fighting to hold back even an instant. The man was, for the first time, visibly nervous, but didn't falter. "I lost the last time as well. I injected Jenova's cells into my own body..."

_So that's why you didn't die!_

"-and these...are the results!" Bereft of his gun, Hojo's only weapons were his capsules with the concentrated monsters inside. Valentine ignored them, riddling professor Hojo, while Strife and Wallace ignored Hojo and focused on the monsters. Eventually, Hojo morphed into a monster, as you do, but this didn't make that much difference except that he now had the concentrated attacks of three people to deal with. Sense Materia meant that the finishing blow was still Valentines. After Hojo had been defeated, Alex stepped out behind them and spoke for the first time. He'd seen the Exit Materia flare, but he could hunt down Hojo later. It was more important to get him off the cannon.

"Hello, gentlemen."

Strife whirled, angry at not being able to finish Hojo himself, but Valentine had gotten there first. Alex kept his hands in view as two gun barrels and a blade pointed at him.

"Who're you?"

"Sephiroth's successor as head of SOLDIER."

"What do you want?"

"To talk. I'm willing to give you safe passage from Midgar if you promise never to come back and leave Shinra to rebuild."

"On whose authority?" Valentine asked, looking up.

"On the authority of you having killed everyone who can give me orders. And the authority of the fifty 1st class SOLDIERs getting ready to storm this cannon."

Strife blinked. "Okay. But you're our hostage."

"Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way. Valentine?"

"Yes?"

"You've done Shinra a great service. Don't suppose you'd think about rejoining now you've killed the man you've been obsessing over for thirty years?"

Valentine laughed, which made his companions glance at him in surprise. "Sorry, but I think I'd better be absolutely certain. I think he might've used some Exit materia there at the end."

_You've got sharp eyes. I barely saw that._

"We'll find him, don't worry. He won't be able to get back here, and if he does, well, the cannon's now disabled. You guys can worry about Sephiroth. Shinra will keep out of the way if I have to kill all the senior officials in the company."

"Appreciated."

"Thanks."

-

After being commandeered to escort AVALANCHE to the edge of the city, a task that took almost an hour, Evan finally got to sign off. The helicopter was needed elsewhere, so he had to walk to his pickup point back to Junon. Having put in a full day of duty in Junon before Alex had arrived, he was now after working thirty two hours straight of frantic heavy duty, and collapsed from exhaustion halfway there. If he'd been alone, he'd have had his throat cut before he'd woken up, but there was some slightly less tired soldiers with him who got him the rest of the way, whereupon he collapsed onto the nearest bunk and got in some much needed recuperative sleep.

- - - - - - - - - -

As soon as he woke up, he was flown to the meeting room in Shinra Building (the sixty sixth floor was now the only one being used), where he was awarded the Shinra Military's highest honour, the 'Coward' Award for Outstanding Resourcefulness in the Face of Annihilation. Shinra didn't reward people for getting themselves killed unless the company clearly got advantage by their death. They wanted soldiers that could _survive _as apposed to die honourably to no purpose. The presentation had caught him completely by surprise and as a result his acceptance speech was a little ragged, but he thought he got through it without making any more mortal enemies. The ceremony wasn't televised, thankfully, in deference to the fact that he didn't want assassins to know what he looked like, and he thought it could even drive the price on his head up that little bit more, because they knew he was getting a medal as when he'd burst into the HBI all that time ago, Corneo had seen his serial number with Shinra. Contrary to his previous belief, according to the event organizers, Shinra had protected his name and face, so he was known to assasins only by his serial number. In spite of the dangers, changing that number would ensure he lost all contact with people he knew, so he was reluctant to do so.

After the presentation, the unnecessary onlookers left, leaving him facing the senior officials of Shinra-or what was left of them. Rufus had been flown to Junon medical facility, and as yet hadn't been replaced. Tseng, still too injured for active duty, had been temporarily promoted to Heidegger's position. A senior tech named Burke was the Acting-Executive of Weapons Development. Palmer, of course, filled his own position. Alex was present representing both his own position and Hojo's, although mostly what he was doing was repairing holding cells with funds from both departments and re allocating monster's cells. He'd pushed for exterminating all the monsters, but the other Execs had convinced him to not to bother, as in cells they'd all be killed when Meteor hit anyway. Reeve, released on probation, still held his own position but was no longer given absolute trust, and had to seek authorization to paint a road sign. He was working closely with Alex. And Evan was standing in front of all of them, beginning to become nervous as he wondered what was going on.

"Your name is Shinra?" Burke opened the...interrogation? Interview?

"Yes sir."

"Are you any relation of the more famous branch?" Faces round the table flickered briefly. _Too direct,_ the flickers said.

"No, sir."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, sir." _If I was any threat to Rufus' inheritance, I'd be dead long ago and you all know it!_ But of course actually saying that aloud would get him killed.

"How do you know? You knew your parents?"

"Yes, sir. They were called Shinra too. If I was found in a basket on the doorstep, that'd be a quite a coincidence."

"Were? They're dead?"

"Yes, sir." He wasn't going to give them any unnecessary details.

"How?"

"Struck by lightning."

"Both of them the same day? That must've been tough."

"Separately, sir. Dad was struck fishing in Junon. There was another storm a few days later."

"Ouch. She liked fishing too?"

"No, sir. Isn't all this information on my file with Shinra, sir?"

"The system's gone down. We'll get it back online in a few days, but in the meantime, we don't know much. What happened to her?"

"She was hit hard when he died, so the next time there was a storm, she climbed to a hilltop screaming insults at Ramuh. And...he heard her."

"What?"

_Please don't make me repeat that..._

"You heard me, sir." That was flirting with insubordination but the escape of the specimens had devastated the Shinra Army and they needed every single soldier, so he was probably safe.

"Any other family?"

"Brother working in Cosmo Canyon. Haven't seen him in years. Is there a reason you want to know all this, sir?"

"We always do a background check on anyone getting a distinction, and with the system down, this's the best we can do."

_Yeah, right. As if you couldn't have me questioned by any low level official._ He pretended to relax, while in fact becoming even more tense. As best as he could tell, what this interrogation amounted to was 'Will anyone miss you if you disappear?' This was less than encouraging.

"And you're sure you're not related to the Shinras?"

"Well, we were actually questioned by Turks about that, and they did tests to verify that we weren't. I think it was mainly just trying to stop us from using the name for extortion."

"I see. Where are you based?"

"Stationed in Junon, sir. Formerly sector one, but was transferred."

"Why?"

"My house was burned down."

"Was it insured?"

"Against arson and accidental fires, yes, but I never applied for Assassin Insurance. Didn't think I was important enough for anyone to bother assassinating me. I was wrong."

"Oh...you're that guy. Could you excuse us for a moment?"

Evan left. The Executives exchanged glances.

"What do you think?"

"He's perfect."

"I dunno...he's lived this long, he has to be smarter than he looks."

"He makes enemies...we don't need that."

"He makes _personal _enemies. They'll hate him, not the company."

"Is this really a good move?"

"Shut up. You've lost all your credibility when you sold out to AVALANCHE."

"That, gentlemen, is the only reason we're still alive."

"Maybe so...but it's still treachery."

"Oh? Then-"

"Stop it. Stick to the matter at hand. Anyone anything to add?"

Silence.

"Call him back."

When Evan re-entered the room, the Execs were on their feet, facing him. Burke was the one in front, and again, he was the one who spoke.

"Evan Shinra, I nominate you as my candidate for the presidency until Rufus Shinra recovers. Thoughts, gentlemen?"

"Second." Palmer.

"Abstain." Reeve.

"Oppose." Alex.

"Oppose." Tseng.

"So we're deadlocked. Reeve, you abstained, so you're allowed to change your vote once. Think about it.

While Reeve considered, thoughts exploded around Evan's mind like fireworks, as he tried to come to grips with this information.

_-I'm being nominated for the presidency! What the fuck is going on?_

_-Think about this. Why would they want me? I have no experience in politics and am most famous for pissing off people. Right now, they need public support desperately._

_-I'm gonna be a figurehead, somebody to throw to the wolves when the mob arrives. This's damage control._

_-Yeah, that sounds right. So what happens if I refuse?_

_- You die before you leave the building, and I imagine you get thrown off the side. Tragic, but it's so treacherous up there with no glass, don't you think?_

_-And if I'm not elected?_

_-You die before you leave the building, and I imagine you get thrown off the side._

_-And if I am elected and fuck up?_

_-You die before-_

_-I leave the building and get thrown off the side, right?_

_-Yup. Sucks to be me._

_-So what happens if I accept and do things right?_

_-You make a bunch of new enemies, but if you play things perfectly, you get away and live in a cave somewhere for the rest of your life, which, thanks to Meteor, is nine days._

_-So I should accept if I get elected?_

_-Doesn't make a difference. You're dead anyway. Even best case scenario is only a temporary measure._

_-So what? Ever since that one bad decision about Corneo, my life's just been a series of temporary measures until the next assassin. Nothing new about imminent death, cept this time I'll have company._

As he came out of his trance, Reeve, who had been watching him closely the entire time, suddenly grinned and said "I think this man may be exactly what this company needs."

_Well, that's settled. Now all I have to do is hold together a collapsing conglomerate, regain currently non-existent public favour, find a way to stop Meteor, prevent myself from being lynched by angry mobs, keep AVALANCHE out of the way, and avoid making a__ny more enemies. I can't wait._

"Do you accept your nomination?"

The hesitation they were watching for, when it came, was so slight it wasn't noticed. "Yes, sir."

Delight was palpable around the table. Ordinarily, the faces of high ranking officials in Shinra were unreadable, but they were under pressure and cracks were beginning to show in the legendary Shinra blankness. Acting overawed by his new office, Evan left as quickly as he could and headed for the shooting range. He had a strong desire to kill something.

- - - - - - - - -

Somewhere in the city, three figures were talking.

"What the fuck are they doing? Are they _trying_ to bring down the company? With all due respect to the guy, he has no idea what he's doing. I saw his eyes. He's terrified."

"Relax, he's not there to do anything. And apparently he's very good at snooker."

"Oh, good! Go dig out _The Complete Guide to Politics with Steve Davis!_"

"Huh?"

"Never mind. We're going to have to do something about him."

"If we act directly, we'll be traced."

"I know that!

"So what've we got left?"

"...I'll think of something."

_-_

I've stolen some lines from the film Snatch and the TV show, Black Books. They seemed to fit. So...we finally learn something about Evan's background. Not much, but something. Enjoy. I'm trying to update as regularly as I can, but unfortunately I don't have much time at a computer, so sorry that this's taking so long to write.


	29. Declaration

_After a shaky last chapter, hopefully this is me back on form. This chapter is the first time I've ever knowingly written anything in this fic that's flatly contradicted by the canon, but bear with me.__ I wrote it before I knew it was flatly contradicted by the canon. It isn't that plausible, but what the hell._

**Declaration**

Mere hours later, Evan was discovering that being a power crazy megalomaniac was a lot harder than it looked. Once he'd been announced to the public, he'd be more difficult to get rid of, but until then, he had to ensure that nobody viewed him as a threat. And that meant staying in character at all times. The power drunk but harmless figurehead was tough to play, so he was stealing a lot of lines from Bond movies. Thankfully, Shinra execs didn't watch much TV. He was about to hold his opening conference with the Executive Council, and he was feverishly wondering what to say.

In between writing his speeches, he experimented with his new desk, testing his capabilities. By sheer chance, he discovered that Heidegger, Scarlet, and Hojo had all been siphoning money from the company for decades. The transactions weren't even hidden, but enraging your executives was not good practice, so the previous Presidents had let it slide. With them now dead, Evan happily transferred a ten percent finder's fee into his own account (totaling almost half a billion gil) and donated the rest to a fund for rebuilding the world after Meteorfall.

He'd had a busy first few hours of office. He had created a new society within Shinra, the SSPCFI, or Shinra Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Fucking Idiots. It fit perfectly into his character, under the heading Flaunting Power for no good reason. This stereotype had also allowed him to send a few soldiers to shut down the Honey Bee Inn without breaking character. With their business suspended, they would have less profit to use to hire assassins. He wanted his concentration fully on Shinra affairs if he was to keep both the company and his own skin intact.

When he walked into the Meeting room, trying desperately to be a good enough actor to trick people well accustomed to catching lies that he was as stupid as he looked, he still had no idea what he was going to say. Then, as he sat down, a sudden flash of genius saved him.

"Does this chair swivel?" It was perfect. He could see the others thoughts

_Obsession with personal comfort...check._

_Indifference to the fate of others...check._

"I believe not, sir, but that can be remedied soon."

"Has the Inn been closed?"

"Yes, sir."

_Fixation on settling petty grudges...check._

"Do you want us to get you a cat?" Palmer asked, grinning. The others looked confused, but that innocent question almost broke his poker face. Of course, Palmer would've watched a lot of TV during his years in exile. He was never going to live this down.

"That...won't be necessary." Mystified at why the question caused so much distress, Reeve cut across them.

"...Sir, there's something you should know..."

"Yes?"

"Wutai has declared war on us." Evan did not have to feign the flash of panic in his eyes.

"What? Why? We're all dead in a few days anyway."

"Who knows? Anyway, this's a time when we all look to you for leadership. Seventy three percent of our military staff is MIA, and Thirty five percent of our general staff are likewise."

"What? That's impossible!"

"Oh, most of them are deserters. It's difficult to motivate people to work when Armageddon is imminent. They prefer to be with their families and such."

"Godo seems to have no trouble motivating his."

"He knows if Meteor doesn't hit us, that he'll never get a better chance than this. We'll never be this weak again."

"I...see."

_Be careful, Evan. If you try to abdicate now, you're dead, but don't overdo it. Even the character I'm trying to play isn't dumb enough to not hesitate in this position._

"Am I announced yet?"

"No. We hope to do it later."

"I'm going walking. When I get back, we'll try to think of something to do." Hopefully, they'd see that as him trying to secure his position through greed. It was actually digging his own grave, and both he and they knew it, but his choices were certain death and probable death.

"Are you sure that's wise, sir?"

"Are you questioning my judgment?"

"Of course not, sir."

Evan left. He was fighting a surprisingly strong urge to burst into tears.

- - - - - - - - -

He moved like a ghost, through Midgar City, not bothered about where he was going, letting his feet move without paying much attention.. He knew he was being followed, but didn't much care.

His treacherous feet took him to most of his favorite haunts, leaving several times after suddenly realizing he was about to visit a friend and hurriedly backtracking to somewhere else. Most of his friends had been murdered by AVALANCHE, (he knew that for a fact-he'd checked up on them using his desk computer) and he didn't want to have any more deaths on his conscience. Especially if he had to pull the trigger himself because of them wanting to take the price on his head

Not wanting to have to waste time worrying about where he was going, Evan moved out of the districts where there were people, his thoughts primarily on what he was going to do about Wutai. With staff deserting in droves, he couldn't sustain a war or even indefinitely maintain the garrisons he had! The only resource Shinra had in abundance was...

_Maybe..._

He'd never be able to pull that off. Not in a civilian area. But...Wutai had to realize that Shinra could still defend itself, and so did the public. If they were seen to be too weak, there'd be an uprising within Midgar itself, which, at worst would result in the fall of Shinra and at best massive civilian casualties and a decrease in the limited public favour they already had. He didn't like the thought, and neither would anyone else now that all the psychotic executives were dead, but it was his best, only, and most insanely dangerous option.

With his primary problem solved, he was turning back to the Shinra building when a cloaked figure stepped out in front of him. And opened fire. Or at least, tried to. Both kneecaps and wrists had been perforated before he could pull the trigger on his rifle.

Reloading, Evan searched the not-yet-corpse. And found nothing, as he'd expected. Assassins were hired precisely for anonymity.

"You're an assassin?"

"Yes."

"Hired by who?"

"I would tell you?"

"Suit yourself" he replied. The assassin was later found robbed, stripped, and tied securely in wires on the underside of the plate.

It was no mystery who'd hired him. Fort Condor didn't like him, but they were bankrupt after giving AVALANCHE all their money to defend them. Who, although they'd had some left over after organizing the defense, hadn't given it back. Wutai didn't know about him yet, and if they wanted him dead they'd use a ninja of their own. The Shinra Executives needed him alive, so they wouldn't try to kill him. Yet. And they wouldn't need assassins, they could just have him thrown off the building. That left the HBI. He'd hoped that shutting them down would put a halt to their assassination attempts, but'd just been proved wrong. Frankly, he couldn't blame the execs .for not carrying out his order. The HBI were powerful among the masses in Midgar, and at present Shinra barely had the staff to maintain itself, never mind go on missions for no discernable reason.

Before going walking, Evan had dredged up an estimate of the HBI's profit margins from Shinra archives. He estimated that if he got the price on his head to over 950,000 gil, he'd sting them enough that they'd leave him alone. With the price on his head currently just over fifty grand, he had a long way to go. So...

_Killing every assassin they send'll take years to get me anywhere. It's time to fight on my terms._

His route changed, heading directly to the Honey Bee Inn in sector six.

-

Masked but not trying to hide the serial number stamped on the chest of his armour, Evan stepped into view of the Shinra soldier guarding the Inn.

"Hello" he said, deliberately thickening his already pronounced Midgar street accent.

"Er...hi. Shinra has temporarily closed this...shop."

Evan glanced around. There was the usual amount of thugs hanging around, more than was usual for a closed shop. This poor kid had clearly been paid to look like he was closing it. MPs weren't paid well, so Evan couldn't really blame him for taking something extra. This was a complication. He didn't want to kill the kid, or the brothel's clientele, who were largely innocent (in one sense of the word). He didn't even want to kill the employees if he didn't have to.

"Oh...sorry."

"It happens." Out of sight of the seven thugs who were converging, the MP made a 'get out of here' gesture. He hadn't asked for this. Evan turned and left, turning and waiting for the pursuing thugs as soon as he was out of sight of the entrance. They weren't actual employees, just clientele who wanted to collect the price on his head. Another complication. They fanned out, and one raised a handgun.

_Seven...that's too many. How do I cut down the odds so I don't have to kill __anyone_ "You made a big mistake, coming here, mister. It's nothing personal, y'know?"

_Be melodramatic. Be composed. Make an impression._

"You're going to kill me because of the price on my head, correct?"

"Yep. But we ain't gonna kill you unless you cause trouble. There's an extra five grand for bringing you in alive."

_Tempting...nah. __They'd make sure I was secure before any of the high ranked officials came near me. _

"And do you know why the price on my head is so high?" It had started out at 1500 gil, but he'd murdered his way up to the proud total of fifty three grand that it was today.

"It's because I've proven myself pretty difficult to kill. So before you do anything, I'd advise you that it'd be a good move to check with the people inside before you do anything. Don't worry about me, I'll wait."

"Heh...I'm sure." But they suddenly weren't so confident.

_Hmm...Melodrama has its uses._

Four of them took his advice, and edged towards the doors of the HBI.

_Three left. Perfect. Enough to convince them I didn't get lucky, but not enough that I have to kill anyone.__ Bring it, boys._

The other two thugs produced two more guns. One of them advanced to within arms length

"Don't move."

He moved.

It was another of those action sequences that'd be in slow motion. He grabbed the wrist of the man nearest to him and used him as a shield, so the two others shot their friend by accident. Then he threw said friend the others, successfully knocking one over. The final man, who'd dodged the man thrown at him, was knocked cold by an armoured fist before he could fire again. He spent an extra couple of seconds beating up the now unconscious men, breaking fingers and ribs, vicious and brutal. Then he left at a slow walk...breaking into a run as soon as he was out of sight. A few seconds after he was gone, a heavy armoured squad of Inn enforcers burst onto the scene.

- -

He was almost back to the Shinra building by the second time he was stopped. By now he was not in a good mood, but the appearance of the people blocking his way was enough to make him cautious. They weren't assassins, dressed in matching militaryish gear, the likes of which he'd never seen before. There was one huge man with a rocket launcher, another woman with what appeared to be claws, and four less distinctive soldiers who seemed to be lowranked cannon fodder.

"Not again...who are you?"

"Us? We are...the Tsviets!" the woman announced proudly.

"The _who?_" He had never heard of any military force by that name.

"The Tsviets." She told him again, apparently expecting a reaction. "I am Asra the Gold, and he is Alaric the Cyan."

"You guys don't have much imagination, do you?" Normally he didn't bother with speeches, but sometimes they were necessary. He was standing in a narrow depression between two pipes, directly in front of the Shinra building. There was no cover-if they fired he was dead. All of them had weapons raised. A trick he'd learned from Elena was to always keep talking. It helped to stall your attackers, and when you spoke they looked at your face, not your hands.

"So...who ordered you to try to kill me?"

"...We don't know. But the price of your death is freedom, so that's irrelevant."

"Freedom? From what?"

"That doesn't matter. And...we're not going to try to kill you. We are going to succeed."

"Of course you are, sweetheart. Five professional soldiers attacking one man by ambush? Whoever sent you doesn't have much faith in you, do they?" He took a step back.

"Well...why were we sent, then?"

"So I'd kill you. And get rid of you. Heads we win, tails you lose...just Shinra's style." He no longer doubted they were part of Shinra. Some obscure division, so that if he killed them they could be claimed to be a terrorist group or some of Hojo's rogue specimens. They'd seen through him from the start. He'd known that was likely, but he had had nothing to lose. Nothing at all. He took another step back. But they'd noticed.

"No more games...Hail Weiss!" This last was chanted by all of them.

_Hail vice? What the fuck is that supposed to mean?_

Evan dipped for his weapons as they attacked. He successfully dodged huge guy's shell, but four clips of armour piercing rounds from the cannon fodder sliced through the arms shielding his face, knocking him back into a sitting position against a pipe.

"Almost too easy..." Asra noted, moving forward to slit his throat.

Evan had taken an unbelievable amount of damage over the past while, what with various assassins and monsters eager to bleed him dry. This damage had been building for some time. Medics had wondered why he rarely seemed to get a limit break, and had concluded that he just had unnaturally high levels of endurance. In actual fact, his limit breaks were similar to Tifa's in that they could hit or miss, and of late his luck had been too focused on keeping him alive in other ways to facilitate a limit. But, at this moment, both of his internal roulettes had landed on 'Yeah!'

His first limit involved grabbing a trailing wire above him, tossing one of Elena's grenades at the Tsviets, and shooting at them until he was empty and the grenade exploded. This cracked the Barrier the Huge guy had summoned and knocked him over. His second limit involved picking up the Tsviet's rocket launcher(which, without the strength of the limit break, he wouldn't be able to lift) and firing, the extra force sending the shell right through huge Tsviet and then shattering it, the shrapnel taking out the four cannon fodder, leaving him fighting a badly wounded Asra the Gold. Knowing she needed to get in close, she charged, slicing in half his machine gun like a toy, but he was able to catch her wrists before she could skewer him on steel claws. She was matching him strength for strength, even winning as the additional strength of the limit break faded. Getting pushed back, panting as the claws inched nearer to his throat, he looked into her grimace and suddenly said "Y'know, you have really nice teeth." This (intentionally) absurdly out of place comment gained him a fraction of a second's confusion, which he used to ram his head forward as hard as he could. The impact knocked her over backwards, and he'd drawn his side arm and shot her five times before she hit the ground.

Breathing hard, he scanned the area for further targets. And found one. A silver haired man holding two gunblades was standing on the pipes above his head.

"And who might you be?"

"My name is Weiss."

"As in 'Hail Weiss?'"

"The same. You have just killed two of my best Tsviets. Inconvenient. That's an impressive limit break. Do you have another in you?"

"No...Not right now..."

"I thought not. What's it called?"

"I don't bother naming them. But according to the Shinra listings they're called Shrapnel Shot and Desperado."

"Impressive...any final words?"

"Yeah. You are such a Sephiroth wannabe." Weiss blurred, impossibly fast. Evan was able to keep him out for about a minute and a half, moving as fast as he could and unable to counterattack, but when Weiss drew back he was exhausted.

"...I stand...corrected." Evan panted, staggering.

Weiss moved in again. He wasn't as tired, but he was impressed. No one had ever been able to keep him out that long before. Including Rosso, who was a Tsviet unlucky enough not to released for this mission, famed for her speed. So he used caution, testing.

For his part, Evan knew he couldn't keep this up. Although Weiss bled when he was shot, the wounds didn't seem to slow him perceptibly. The second time Weiss drew back, Evan was nearing collapse.

"You're good, whoever you are. But I'm unequalled." He blurred again, this time driving in for the kill. Having got a handle on his style, Evan didn't bother trying to follow the movement and fired blind over his shoulder until he clicked empty, at which point he realized he was still alive and turned.

Weiss was right behind him, hand raised to a gash on his temple, one of the gunblades on the ground beside him.

"Another centimetre..." Weiss said softly to himself "Another centimetre to the right and I'd have-"

His reflections were interrupted by a bald man in sunglasses leaping on him from behind and trying to snap his neck. Attempting to skewer his attacker with the gunblade he was still holding, he was met on one side by a Mag Rod and on the other by his other weapon, the one he'd dropped.

The human neck is a lot tougher than people think, especially on the genetically enhanced, but Weiss was off balance and out numbered. There was nothing he could do to stop his neck from breaking. It finally did, and Reno, Rude and Elena were able to let go and step forward.

"Hi."

"Couldn't you have done that five minutes earlier? It'd have saved me a lot of effort."

"And spoil the show? I don't think so. Who'd you piss off this time?" Reno grinned.

"Fuck you. Said they were the Tsviets. Ever heard of them?"

"Tsviets? Weren't they some kind of medical facilty?" Elena spoke up.

"Really? Well, I'd hate to be treated by this guy." Evan noted, kicking the giant.

"Hah. Y'know, I never thought you were presidential material."

"Well, given that my qualification lies in the fact that I have the same name as the previous Presidents, you may be right. If you all respect your officers, work hard, and keep your heads down, you too may become the official guy-to-be-thrown-to-the-wolves!"

"You knew? Then why'd you accept?"

"What'd have happened if I didn't? Am I announced yet?"

"Yeah...just over half an hour ago. So...what are you going to do?"

"Die. Even assuming I survive this, an assassin or some street thug out for the price on my head will get me eventually."

"So why didn't you kill those guys that attacked you earlier?"

"You were there for that? Of course you were. Excuse me a moment." He walked over to Asra, who had just twitched, and slotted in a fresh clip as she tried to sit up.

"Hello. Are you going to tell me who ordered this?"

"Are you going to kill me if I say no?"

"I'm going to kill you anyway. But it's up to you whether I do it in one bullet or eighteen."

"Hahaha...such honesty. Unusual. Any other incentives?"

"Well...you gain the satisfaction of knowing that whoever sent you here to die will shortly be joining you."

"As opposed to you? Sorry, I don't think I'll say anything."

A gunshot followed. Just the one-he wasn't yet able to resort to torture. Then he crossed to Weiss and put three bullets into him, the wounds lost in his hair. Then he returned to the Turks.

"You were saying?" The show of nonchalance was fooling nobody. Evan was beginning to show the strain of his position.

"Why didn't you kill those men who attacked you earlier?"

"What good would that do? Corpses aren't as effective as rumours. Those...gentlemen... were relatively blameless. Killing them would just leave corpses, which people can deal with. Alive, they get to spread the word that I am not somebody to cross. And, as I'm attacking their customers, it'll push the price on my head that little bit higher. If people think they might get hurt, some of them will stay away from the Inn, so they lose profit.

And as well as giving them less money to spend on assassins, and because I'm hurting, them, they raise the price, so that's two birds at once.

" If I just, say, knocked them out, they'd tell people that if you attack me, you won't be that much worse off if you lose. And I'd be inundated by assassins. So I have to make them remember me. But...if I killed them...it wouldn't be as effective, and'd be worse for me in the long term. People avenge deaths. They're not so eager to avenge beatings. And the avengers, if murdered, have to be avenged.

"And then _they_ have to be avenged, and then _they_ have to be avenged, and the whole vicious cycle just goes on and on and on...

"Until I wipe out the entire population of this planet or

...somebody!

...finally!

...kills me!"

As he was talking, he snatched Reno's Mag Rod with eerie speed and smashed it onto the pipes as hard as he could. Reno blinked. He'd barely seen the movement, never mind stopped him. When Evan continued, his voice was softer, more hopeless. "The only reason I haven't shot myself already is that I don't think the Lifestream is going to be any better. Assuming I don't get processed by a Mako reactor, there's gonna be a lot of angry people waiting for me..."

The Turks examined the pipe. Evan had left a dent. On steel backed triple forged mythril.

"...C'mon, let's go back."

Evan gestured with the gun barrel. "You don't mind if you walk ahead of me?"

"You don't trust us?"

"Oh, of course I trust you! Three highly trained professional assassins working for a company that will kill me if it even suspects I'm not as stupid as I look! What's not to trust? Incidentally, if I see a phone or a headset being used, you're all dead."

"You think you could take us all?"

"Probably not. But two in three's not bad. Any volunteers to move first?"

"Sheesh, calm down. By the way, the assassin business now isn't taking less than seventy eight grand on your head, but the HBI are matching their figure."

_Now you're high enough for the better assassins to start taking an interest__. Careful, Evan._

"From fifty? That's a big jump."

"Yeah, well...you killed a pretty well connected assassin earlier tonight."

"He's dead?"

"Yep. Why should you care?"

"I don't, not really, but wounded assassins need medical expenses, which the HBI have to pay. Corpses are easier to pay for, because all you need is a spade. How do you know what the price on my head is?"

"We got called by Tseng with the news."

"By the way...try not to get yourself killed. Ree wouldn't like that." Elena made her first contribution since about the Tsviet's origin.

"Who _tries _to get themselves killed? Just because people try to kill me a lot doesn't mean I enjoy it. I mean, do you honestly enjoy being professional assassins?"

"...We're not professional assassins. We're _Administrative Researchers._"

"..."

-

He got back to the Shinra building unscathed, and after some curative items gave him enough energy not to submit to exhaustion, he went up the newly re-glazed President's office to make his opening speech, twinges of pain from his wrist telling him he'd been stupid to go walking. The break had been magically healed, but he wasn't recommended to use it for a few days. A guideline that he'd now spectacularly broken. Hopefully there wouldn't be permanent damage.

_I'm going to have to show them my face. That's gonna make it easier for assassins to identify me, but If I don't, Shinra could easily replace me without anyone knowing. That's the price of survival. Probably not surviving. But I'm keeping my name._

"We're live in 5...4...3...2...1..."

"Hello, folks. You may be aware that Wutai has declared war on us. As Rufus is currently unable to assume his office, I have been elected Acting President for the duration of the emergency. You may be wondering why you haven't seen me before, and there's a simple answer to that. Twenty four hours ago I was an Attack Squad. The reason I have been elected is..."

-

He walked into the Meeting Room and surveyed his Executives. It had been a most enlightening speech. Now their emotions were plain on their faces-victory. He was locked in place. They'd seen through his act the entire time. Burke opened the meeting.

"Hello, Evan. You thought you were being clever, didn't you?"

"That's sir to you."

"Hmph. Pathetic. Now, you will do exactly as we say or else face extreme consequences, do you understand?"

"No, I don't understand."

"What?"

"These 'extreme consequences.' "

"Simple. Ask yourself this. What would happen in the hypothetical scenario of us calling the guards and ordering you executed?"

"I'd kill you all before they were halfway through the door."

"And then what?"

"Nothing. I let myself be executed."

"Kamikaze? That isn't your style."

" You can't make a style of Kamikaze, because by definition, you can only do it once."

"True."

"Of course, you could just kill me as soon as I'm out of sight, but now that I'm public, you'd have a hard time finding a new Prez, wouldn't you?"

"That speech never went public."

"Not by you...but I e-mailed it to the editor of Shinra TV after you failed to broadcast it. Let's watch, shall we?" He turned on the screen behind him and tuned it to the channel, which was just in the middle of the speech. "You sealed off communications from the Presidential desk, so I used a terminal downstairs. If I'm going to get killed through my mistakes, _I'm _going to do it, I'm not going to be a puppet. So talk to me. What's happening?"

Palmer started to laugh. "Oh, you're good, kid. Rookie mistake, Burke. How did you not think of that?" Tseng was laughing too, and it was left to a slightly smiling Reeve to answer the question.

"Midgar's still under martial law, and people are beginning to get hungry. General Staniv had landed near Rocket Town with a sizeable force, and is moving fast."

"Rocket Town? That's got to be a feint. There's nothing there except Nibel Reactor, and half a dozen soldiers could defend it easily."

"That's true, but we have to do something. It's most likely a test, to see if we can defend out territory. If we can defeat Staniv quickly, we can end the war before it gets serious. That's the problem. We don't have nearly enough remaining military to do anything except get slaughtered. Machines are in a similar state-all their power was drained to sister ray, and it'll be days before we can charge them again. The only good news I have is that Hojo was found by two soldiers and executed."

"Well, that'\s one less problem. What about AVALANCHE?"

"They're in the Gold Saucer-Battle Square to be exact. They're not coming out any time soon-probably won't even know there's a war on until afterwards. I'll encourage them to stay there until they're ready to go after Sephiroth."

"They're wasting time in a theme park instead of saving the Planet?"

"If you think you're going to die in a few days, what do you do?"

"Fair point. Do we still have those freight trucks for loading the Rocket? How long will it take to get them up and running?"

"...Ninety minutes."

"Okay. Here's what you do..."

-

In the Turk staffroom, the officers exchanged glances.

"What do you think?"

"He's cracking. He can't deal with this for long. He'll shatter pretty soon."

"...I hope he's tougher than he looks, or we might all get it hard when he shatters."

"He's lived this long. What's a few more days?"

-

Somewhere else...

"Brother...no! It can't be!"

-

I happen to like Laguna's limit in FF8, so I stole it for Evan. I know it's annoying to put in the Tsviets, but I might do a sequel to this set during DOC, and this's paving the way. PLEASE review. This is going to be my second Christmas working on this story. Is it worth it?


	30. Problems

**Problems**

Now exposed as somebody who wouldn't lie down and be a puppet, Evan was not having a good term in office. His executives, it seemed, would prefer the company collapsing around them than him as an active President, and were doing everything they could to hold him back. Although he remained beset on all sides by problems and inadequate resources, his Execs were not cooperating as much as they could without openly disobeying or withholding information, hoping he'd either cave under the pressure or be forced to hand over control. But he had managed to score one small victory...

"_No!"_

"_But it's very important that we disassociate from-"_

"_Burke, the only thing signing an official dismissal would do would be to confirm suspicions that we are responsible for Meteorfall!"_

"_Yes, but Sephiroth was never officially severed from Shinra! It's very important that we aren't connected with him in any way, so it's best if you'd sign the dismissal, sir!"_

_Evan sighed. Having discovered their new President to be more stubborn than they'd anticipated, his Executives were trying to smother him in trivia so they could seize control. He didn't plan to let them. If he was going to die because of a stupid mistake, it was going to be his. His patience was wearing thin with such tactics. Unfortunately, arguing with them played into their hands. He'd scoured the procedures book to see if there was any way he could stop them, however, and by now had hopefully come up with something that'd do._

"_Fine, I'll sign it." That'd mean his name was publicly known, and Burke was instantly suspicious._

"_But?"_

"_But...you have to go inform him of his change in status."_

"_What?"_

"_You heard me. Chapter three, section seven of this book states that when a senior official is demoted or fired, he must be informed 24 hours before the order takes effect. So take my helicopter and go tell him. The North Cave isn't that far."_

"_But-"_

"_Yes? Don't let me keep you! If you don't want to go, then stop trying to smother me! And I can sign that order any time you like, so be careful from now on! Now fuck off!"_

But that success had taken up too much of his time to orchestrate, and he was neglecting the rest of his duties to deal with his underlings. Even if they suddenly instantly obeyed him to the letter, he had more than enough problems to deal with.

With his face and his location now known to everyone trying to kill him, the last twelve hours had seen eleven assassination attempts find their way into the Shinra building, five of which actually requiring him to make a kill, while the rest were stopped by security before they reached him. Normally, nowhere near that many would have got through, but having decided it was a waste of time to repair the Shinra building until after Meteor, the only floors actually in use were the President's office and the 66th floor, which left plenty of room for assassins to find their way in. Only two of the attempts were Wutaien ninjas, and those were the ones he was lucky to have survived. Wutaien ninjas had been assassinating people for centuries, and they were very good at it.

Evan, now irredeemably paranoid, was now refusing to sleep at any time, relying on a constant string of Hypers injected into him to keep him awake and alert. A side effect from this was that he found it almost impossible to think straight, and found himself in a permanent state of uncontrollable rage, leaving several innocent bystanders with gunshot wounds and one unlucky bastard accidentally thrown out of a 67th floor window. Realising what he'd done, Evan then put the man out of his misery before he hit the ground, cementing his reputation as an unstable psychopath.

His first murder of somebody who genuinely didn't deserve it sunk Evan further into manic depression. To counteract the Hypers, he kept the first four chambers in his weapon empty, so he wouldn't accidentally kill somebody again, running the risk that the extra few seconds that gave an assassin would be enough for him/her to get a chance to fire first.

Godo and Chekhev's legions combined overran Fort Condor, contemptuously not bothering to consolidate territory between Wutai and there, knowing that Shinra had not the strength to stop them travelling and they hadn't to fear being cut off. It was a masterstroke-held by skilled fighters, Fort Condor was one of the most defensible positions on the planet, and Godo could now pose a direct threat to both Junon and Midgar without any fear of being dug out. With Gorky holding Wutai, one legion remained unaccounted for, more than enough to leave Shinra employees nervous. The silver lining was that an attempted strike at the Chocobo farm had been bogged down in the swamp, and the Wutaiens had been forced to back off to avoid decimation by the Midgar Zolom.

Thus far, Wutai had simply taken over unoccupied land. Evan's unorthodox response to Staniv's invasion would be the first time that Shinra retaliated. A lot hinged on the outcome of the first confrontation between the two sides. If Shinra won, it would send a message across the world that they could still defend their borders. If Shinra lost, no matter how close the outcome, it would be known that a desperate ploy on their part had failed, and they were now helpless. This would be bad enough if it was just some piece of propaganda, but, unfortunately, it was true. The world watched the outcome with bated breath (with the exception of AVALANCHE, who were still trying to rack up points in Battle Square.)

**- - - -**

General Staniv of Wutai examined his options. In the countryside between Shinra no. 26 and Mt Nibel, three heavy duty monster trucks faced him, formerly used to carry goods for building the now destroyed rocket. A considerable amount of soldiers could be held in each. According to latest reports, Shinra didn't have enough spare soldiers to change a lightbulb. But cockiness had killed better men than him, so he didn't want to head in heedlessly.

The three lorries did composed three point turns and presented their cargo doors to him.

"Surrender now or die!" the speakers blared. Staniv smiled. If they actually had been full of soldiers, the drivers wouldn't have bothered with threats. He signaled the advance. The cargo doors opened in two of the lorries, the third probably holding reserves. A mob of enraged monsters spilled through the gap and began massacring his vanguard.

-

Staniv downed the last loose Behemoth with his mace and stepped back, assessing. The initial rush had had him take heavy casualties, but his forces had weathered the storm and managed to bottle in the remaining monsters in the lorries, keeping them confined with a harrying force, while flanking squads tried to get towards the cabs of the lorries and kill the drivers, and the majority of his army caught their breath. In spite of the initial scare, he was confident of victory. His troops had responded magnificently, overcoming the ignominy of being a diversion to rise to the occasion of this nameless new President's surprising lack of morals. Some of these monsters would undoubtedly escape and cause heavy casualties to civilians in the area. Not something you wanted to be famous for. But then, with the world due to end in five days, maybe that was academic anyway.

He could hear fighting up around the cab areas as the machine gun mounted on the roof of the trucks fired on the ninjas. The lorries moved forward, apparently attempting to win free of the ninjas. This simple tactic actually left his harrying force too far away to be effective, and he had to order the bulk of his army back into action. His flanking squads were on the roof, trying to penetrate the reinforced cab. The guns cut out as they were prised free. His army bottled up the monsters again after a fierce battle, dragging corpses across the entrances to the lorries and firing Swift Bolts and Fire Veils into the gaps, obliterating everything inside. A ninja at the cab successfully penetrated the windshield of one lorry and impaled the driver, climbing in beside him and closing the rear cargo doors by remote. But the stacked corpses obstructed it from closing. An en masse charge from the monsters inside the lorries as the rate of Fire Veils suddenly eased off knocked the corpses aside, forcing the ninjas back into battle in order to provide a fresh supply.

-

Back in the Shinra building, Evan was beyond the point of fury or even despair by now. His body was developing immunity to the constant stream of drugs, which led to higher doses, which left him almost incapable of functioning. Burke was enraged at his humiliation and was prepared to bring the company crashing down if it'd get Evan's head on a spike. The Tranquillisers (administered to help him fight the Hypers) were slowing his reaction time and the assassins were getting closer to success. Of the next three assassins who reached him, all of them drew blood, and one bullet was a near fatal wound. Everyone watching him could see him self destructing under the pressure, and the only speculation was if he'd last to keep the company intact. The smart money was on him jumping off the building within a week. The Execs, with the exceptions of Alex and Palmer, did everything to accelerate the process. They wanted control of the company. Permanently near collapse, Evan couldn't hold out for long. The plus side was that, with all the assassins dying and the additional security of Shinra between him and any assassins, the price on his head was skyrocketing.

His desk crackled.

"Sir, there's an angry mob here to see you."

"Do they have an appointment?" His grip on reality was slipping as well.

"Um...no, sir. But they're demanding to talk to you, and we can't keep them out." They couldn't keep out an angry mob of civilians. How the mighty had fallen. A month ago, an angry mob wouldn't have got anywhere near Shinra Building.

"Alright...I'll be with them in a minute." On his way down to the lobby, he rammed a Tranquiliser dart into his throat. It'd take ten minutes to counter the Hyper, then he'd have five minutes of clarity, then he'd have another five minutes before he started getting sleepy and had to inject another Hyper to keep him alert. Most people used the swallowed form of Tranqs and Hypers, but they didn't have a fast enough effect for his purposes. So he was left with the more potent, and less healthy incarnation.

The angry mob were thrown off balance by him actually agreeing to see them, and were conferring as to who'd be the spokesperson when he arrived. Knowing he hadn't much time before the effects of the tranq got to be more than he could handle, he tried to be patient. But the faint but audible clicks of him firing the four empty cartridges at the ground got their attention.

"C'mon, people, I don't have all day. What do you want?"

"Um...Is it true that you are using genetically altered monsters in the war effort?"

_Fuck. Someone leaked that._

"Yes. And?"

Expecting a denial, the speaker was briefly wrongfooted, but rallied quickly.

"You are? That is a despicable practice-"

"You'd prefer me to spend the lives of people? Are their lives worth less than a Behemoth's?"

"No, but-"

"But? Those monsters massacred hundreds of Citizens of Midgar. Should I let that go unpunished? Humans who murder are sent to Fort Condor to die. You are denying the animals their right to be answerable to crimes." Thought through, that made absolutely no sense, but hopefully this mob wouldn't have time to realise this until after he left.

"You had plenty of time to object to the practise of sending convicts to die at Fort Condor. But there wasn't any angry mob begging for my life when I was sentenced! Either because you care more about monsters than people or you were afraid of Shinra. Which is it?" There, at least he had a genuine point.

"But they have a chance to survive!"

"So do the monsters in the war effort."

"Are you going to release them, then, after the war?"

"Of course. I'll tell you what, I'll release all of them in your back garden if it'll make you happy."

Silence.

"Oh, you _don't _want them wandering around near you? Where do I release them, then?"

"Well, you certainly don't seem to have any problems releasing them in battle, knowing that some will escape and massacre the locals."

_He has a point...fuck._

"Look, if anyone doesn't approve of my policies, that's fine. Go on up to my office. I'll nominate you for the presidency and see if you can do better. I mean that." For an instant he thought he saw somebody step forward and experienced a brief moment of hope, but it turned out to be his imagination. The angry mob, faced with promotion, dispersed, and he walked back into the lobby.

_I can't believe I pulled that off. It won't happen twice._

"Sir?" Somebody tapped him on the shoulder. He jumped. His arm reflexively came up and pulled the trigger. His secretary, a pretty redhead, had one instant to register terror before he shot her. The over loud gunshot was followed by a stunned silence in the reasonably crowded lobby, followed by a thud. The two paramedics on standby in case the mob injured anyone ran to the fallen secretary. A soldier standing nearby screamed "You killed my girl, you bastard!" and fired on Evan. For the most part, the bullets bounced off his armour harmlessly, but the impacts knocked him onto his back. There, he sighted between his attackers eyes. He didn't make a habit of sparing people who tried to kill him...

...but this guy had a valid reason. So he got away with a perforated kneecap. Standing, he wondered what he should do now. A show of regret would make him vulnerable to people who were looking for any show of weakness, but saying nothing would mark him out as a cold blooded killer, an evil bastard with no conscience. He had about three seconds of indecision before walking towards the elevators without saying anything. 'Sorry I murdered your girlfriend' sounded a tad inadequate, after all. It wasn't until about the thirty eighth floor that he showed any reaction at all, almost breaking his wrist off the wall and consoling himself with the fact that, one way or another, he wouldn't have to do this for much longer.

Back at his office, he found out why the secretary had wanted him-a strategy meeting- and went back down to the sixty sixth floor to talk to his Executives.

"Okay, people, talk to me. What's going on? I've just shot my secretary, so no dissembling, I'm not in the mood to take it."

"Our convoy has engaged General Staniv outside Shinra no.26, and latest reports suggest it'll at least keep him out of the way. Even if he wins, the Nibel Mt.s will be impassable. Gorky remains in Wutai, defending it against attack. One legion is missing, presumed about to spring a nasty surprise." As usual, Alex was a total optimist.

"Okay,okay. Godo's at Fort Condor, and we won't be able to dig him out. With Meteor due soon, siege is pointless. So is sitting there, though. Even ninjas want to be at home when the world ends. They wouldn't have launched this offensive if they thought it'd achieve nothing, so they are going to attack at some point.

"What do we know...our military is non existent. The only thing we have in abundance is monsters. Midgar is unapproachable without any force being shredded by our artillery. So...what can I expect? We're safe here as long as the city's in lockdown, as far as anyone knows? But they'll have to strike at Midgar at some point. What's Midgar's weaknesses?" Palmer was the one who answered him.

"Hmm...We're built on rock, and any approach by land or sea will be shredded by sister Ray. In that you're right. But we're vulnerable if the citizens rise, as you saw earlier. Normally, I'd say send a force to infiltrate the slums, but we're in lockdown, they can't get in. So...when was the last major security breach from an external force in Midgar? Who did it, and how?"

"AVALANCHE." Reeve told them. "They came in by air."

"Air!" This from Alex again. "That's their way in. We don't have many ground to air defences –there was no point, we were the only prominent air force on the planet. But now most of the fleet is down, and what we have is based in Junon. They can't penetrate Midgar unless they control the airspace, where they can pound our defences and be too fast for Sister Ray to target. So they have to strike at Junon first. With time running out, they'll make their push soon, so they can take our planes and use them on us. Either that or they'll wait until we have to lift the lockdown for the evacuation of Midgar come Meteorfall. But that'd be risky-if they don't get out in time, they get caught in the red zone. No, they're going to make one all or nothing push on Junon, and with our military the way it is, we'll be obliterated. Godo and Chekhev are in Fort Condor, Staniv's near Shinra 26, and Gorky's at home. Where does that leave Shake's legion? Somewhere on this continent, where they can make a fast swipe at Junon, because that has to be their target. Mythril mine?"

"No. It'd be too easy to pin them there, with the swamp blocking their retreat. Maybe Mideel?"

"That's too far. We'd see em coming. And the town's too small for the locals not to notice an army. They can't kill them all."

"How about Junon itself? Infiltrate, then rise in a coordinated move, maybe with some agitated civilians mixed in so that the soldiers are more reluctant to shoot." This from Tseng.

"Junon would notice a mass influx. Its population's been dented by the Weapons. They'd have to find somewhere quiet to stage and there's nowhere really that they wouldn't be noticed if they passed through Lower Junon."

"They don't have to pass through lower Junon. They can swim up the coast and come ashore at the harbour. Most of Junon garrison is here, so they could easily go through the town without meeting any patrols."

"They'd have to be strong swimmers, carrying steel weapons and armour. You'd lose too many of them, no matter how good they were. You'd need somewhere to stage, so that a small number could come up the elevator with their weapons and distribute them, small enough that the guard wouldn't get suspicious and'd accept a bribe.. And that'd take time to organise, so they'd need somewhere they wouldn't be noticed for a couple of days. They couldn't not be noticed –are you bleeding, sir?"

Evan blinked. Had he forgotten to hide the needle tracks? Nothing that could be done about it now.

"Am I?"

"Yes...your hand, sir."

Evan glanced down. An errant shard of glass missed by the cleaners was still on the table, and he'd cut his hand off it without noticing.

_What's go__ing on? Why didn't I feel that? I should at least have noticed. ...Strange. Well, a cut hand's the least of my problems right now. It'll heal. I'll worry about numbed nerves later._

"I'll be fine. What were you saying?"

"I was saying that there isn't anywhere to stage an army without being noticed."

"What's needed in a staging area?"

"A lot of space somewhere that's hard to attack or be detected in."

"And there's nowhere like that in Junon?"

"Not where they couldn't be noticed by the patrols."

"Normally, yes. But Junon is now criminally understaffed, isn't it? So they could easily avoid the patrols and go to ground somewhere."

"Yes, but _where, _sir? There's nowhere."

"Are any of the staff in the Underwater Reactor bribable?"

"What Underwater Reactor staff? The ones that weren't murdered by AVALANCHE are here, and with the little military they have left, Junon wouldn't...be worried...about...the..." Palmer trailed off.

"I think you might have something there, sir." Tseng said, standing up. "They swim in one night, go to ground in the reactor, send a small detachment up the elevator with the weapons, arm, organise, and then bring down the city with a sudden attack, gain control of the elevator, if the upper section is sealed in time, wait for Godo to come from Fort Condor, take over the command centre with sheer numbers, then use the planes at the airport to blitzkrieg Midgar into surrender."

"That's dicey...we could shut down the elevators from the Underwater Reactor and seal them in. Or , knowing they want our planes, we could move them all to Midgar, and then Midgar's secure."

"Yes, but we have to evacuate Midgar in a few days, so they'd just wait for us to lose patience or the civilians to rebel." Reeve wasn't much on military strategy, but he knew Midgar.

"Um...I've just realised something, sir. Rufus is being treated in Junon. And if Wutai have him, we're all kinda screwed." This was from Burke, who had been silent up to now, due to terror being terrified of Evan signing that order to exile him to the crater.

The reaction around the table was quite a spectacle. Although everyone made various observations along the lines of 'Fuuuucckk!', Evan was the one who completely panicked. He'd just realised something.

_If Rufus dies, I'm stuck as President for the rest of my life! I won't be able to take that. I have to do something!_

"Somebody get me a helicopter. Keep me posted on anything that happens here. I'm not going to hand power to any of you, I know better, but if there's a crisis-" here he paused, considered, and continued "-that is, a crisis more than we have to handle already, do whatever you have to. That's not a carte blanche; if you do anything you'd better have a good explanation for it if I get back, but I'm not going to see the city a pile of rubble because you needed authorisation. I'm going to Junon to see if I can keep myself from dying for another few days. I'd say 'Wish me luck', but considering who I'm talking to, I don't think I will. Bye."

* * *

_Sorry about the delay. Please read and review. Why is it I'm no good at emotion?_


	31. Warpath

**Warpath**

Having arrived at Junon, Evan was now wondering why he'd bothered with such a pointless gesture. He was here, yes, but what now? Even if there was an army hiding in the underwater reactor, there was nothing he could do about it. Sending a patrol down to investigate would either be a waste of time or a waste of lives, depending on whether they were there or not. He couldn't stop them from rallying. The elevators weren't operated from the command centre, and he was certain that any attempted sabotage would be thwarted by the Wutaiens. The Wutaiens would rise from their staging point sweep away all resistance, and secure the elevator from lower Junon, whereupon, Godo and Chekhev would sally from Fort Condor and rendezvous with Shake. By that time Junon town would be overrun and any surviving Shinra forces would be withdrawn to the Command centre, with the elevators up sabotaged. As if it'd make a difference. Elite Wutaien ninjas were capable of running up vertical walls. An elevator shaft would probably be no more challenge than a gently sloping hill. And even if they were feeling lazy, ninjas abseiling down from the cliff behind the town could overrun the command centre easily –as proven by events during the Great War. Midgar was more secured against outside attack, but the Wutaiens wouldn't attack it once they had Junon. Why bother? It was due to be flattened by Meteor in a few days.

Evan couldn't even pull his trick with the research specimens. Not in the middle of a civilian town. This wasn't altruism –the surviving citizen would tear the town apart to lynch him if he even tried. Speaking of research specimens, word had come back from the rocket town expedition –his force had been slaughtered to the last creature, as well as all three drivers. But Staniv's force would take days to travel through the Nibel mountains, so he'd be dead long before they got near enough to threaten him. Alex had sent more research specimens to attack Fort Condor, just to get rid of excess stock –in the right hands, Condor was an impregnable fortress, so the specimens were predictably slaughtered. But it kept the Wutaien legions from becoming too dug in.

With an estimated six hours to live, give or take a few minutes, and absolutely no way to alter his fate, Evan didn't bother even pretending to make a battle plan. He'd been manipulated out here by his Execs to die, so that after he was killed they could say "Oh, thank heavens! You have released us from his tyrannical rule!" and come out of Midgar waving olive branches. He'd realised this too late, and with nothing else to be done about it he was sitting in the basement of the Respectable Inn having a drink and chatting with the three ghosts in the corner about theology. It was odd. The instant it had been proven beyond doubt that there _was_ life after death, religion had seriously declined in power. It seemed what people craved was uncertainty.

Leaning back and closing his eyes he sipped his drink while pondering a particular point by one of the ghosts. At least he didn't have to fear poison. During the war, Shinra medics had discovered how to mass produce an all purpose antivenin/antiviral serum that counteracted most poisons instantly (commonly known as an Antidote). So all he had to fear were direct assaults.

The ghost grinned.

"You don't have an answer, do you?"

"What was the question again?"

"I was saying that the planet is clearly an evil bitch. Look at me. Some spiky headed prick didn't explain a battle technique properly, and now I'm stuck here til I understand it? I mean, what the fuck? It's not like I actually care anymore, and she's denying me a chance to move on?"

"It beats being processed by a Mako reactor down in the Lifestream."

"There is that. Still..."

"Well, if you really wanted whatever it is explained, this building is a favourite haunt for Junon veterans, so you could easily have found out if you wanted to. Therefore, however much you bitch about it, you're enjoying this existence. And by the way, was this spiky guy a blonde with Mako eyes?"

"You've met him?"

_Wow, Strife, you get around. You're responsible for more suffering than Hojo!_

"Briefly."

"Well, if you see him again, shoot him once for me, okay?"

"I'll try. But y'know, if you want something explained there's plenty of people who'll do it for y-" The sound of a footstep from a living creature made him look up. It was a masked Shinra soldier. He was about to relax when he was fired on at point blank range.

If this had been a few weeks –days- ago he'd have died. But he'd invested in a Barrrier materia with his newfound wealth and the bullets skated off the edge. His gun hand (these days, he always kept a Shinra .17 in hand unless he was holding a bigger weapon) came up and fired, hitting his target just below the mask, shattering the jaw of his would be assassin. The three ghosts cheered.

"Nice one, mate!"

_Stupid, Ev. You should have known the price on your head was high enough to tempt Shinra soldiers now. You're going to have to make a lot of kills, maybe even of people you know, if you stay here much longer. So move!_

He was in the act of ensuring his would be assassin didn't drown on his own blood when he changed his mind and stood up.

_Fuck him, he tried to kill me. I'm finished with mercy, it's gotten me nowhere._

Somebody must have heard him. There were three more assassination attempts on the two hundred foot stretch from the Respectable Inn door to the elevator to the Command Centre. The first one was fairly straightforward, a dagger throw from behind that hit him between the shoulder blades, harmlessly bouncing off his armour just below a point on the back of his neck that, if hit, would have severed his spinal chord and left him alive but paralyzed from the neck down, an easy kill. When he turned, there were at least a dozen people on the street behind him. The assassin could have been any of them, or none. Retrieving the dagger, he kept walking, trying to stay alert, knowing that if he gave a chance like that to a Wutaien ninja, they wouldn't have missed.

The second assassination attempt was by means of a sniper from a rooftop further back from the waterfront, well out of hand or machinegun range. The bullet was thwarted by the Barrier, the aim itself perfect. But the assassin was undeterred, a long range Fire2 spinning Evan around so the barrier wasn't facing the assassin whereupon a bullet hit the Barrier materia, the Cure Materia, and the Luck Plus materia, shattering each. It was ridiculously good sniping. He'd evidently attracted the attention of one of the best assassins in the business. Grenades from Evan obviously couldn't get anywhere near the assassin, but served to obscure him from view so the assassin hadn't a clear target. Even so, Evan took a scalp wound before getting behind cover. Then he called up a patrol from the barracks to investigate the place he'd been shot at from. Naturally the assassin was long gone when they got there, but it got rid of him so Evan could continue on his way without getting shot.

The third assassination attempt came when he was in the elevator on the way up to Junon Command Centre when the grenade arced in the door behind him. He caught it in his peripheral vision, and whirled, kicking it back out the door behind him. It exploded on the threshold, throwing him hard against the opposite wall as the elevator started to move. Tasting blood, he sat up and looked out the door. No one in sight. He pulled his head back in just before he could be decapitated by a girder as the elevator ascended.

It was an extremely pissed, bleeding and battered man who staggered into the command centre a few minutes later, after two more assassination attempts had left him alive but without any dead assassins to show for it. Instantly he was surrounded by techs bleating meaningless expressions of admonitions and/or horror. He sat down at a computer and opened a connection to Midgar. Palmer answered almost immediately. To his credit, he didn't ask any questions at Evan's somewhat battered appearance, only saying "We'll send you out some Turk bodyguards."

"No" Evan told him, as exhaustedly as he felt. "Even if I could trust them, I have strong doubts as to their efficiency. They've been routinely beaten up by AVALANCHE thus far, so I don't think they'd do me much good. Besides, I'm dead when the Wutaiens break through anyway." He was aware as he said this that Tseng was probably in the room and his voice was probably on loudspeaker, but he wouldn't live long enough to be assassinated anyway. At least, by the Turks.

"Start evacuating Midgar."

Despair brought with it alertness, and he noticed the flicker in Palmer's eyes that said _'We have'._

"But the Wutaiens will be able to get-" Palmer argued for the sake of appearance.

"In? To what? A city due to be destroyed in three days? Conquest isn't worth the effort."

He terminated the connection and brought up the latest price on his head, currently standing at 600, 000 gil –higher than the other execs, who were all 500, 000. Rufus was set at a million, as were the members of AVALANCHE. Reeve would doubtless be highly amused to learn that his robotic counterpart was priced higher than his real body. Sephiroth had no price on his head –he'd killed so many assassins during Wutai that it'd been put into abeyance. Jenovas was considered a research specimen and was merely 100, 000.

Evan stared at the figure. Shinra soldiers had long been unbribable, if only because Shinra could outbid anyone else. The weekly wage for a Shinra Grunt (plus expenses and perks) was 5, 000 gil. This was high enough that most people wouldn't jeopardize their jobs to kill their superiors. Once you hit 100 grand, you were at risk, but most still didn't dare for fear of retribution whether they succeeded or failed. But Evan was a puppet and Shinra's employees knew it. He had no value, and wouldn't be avenged if they killed him. So he was fair game, and at 600, 000, he was worth killing. As long as he was in a room with people in it, he was at risk.

As if to illustrate the point, a reflection on the screen he was watching caused him to dive aside as a bullet shattered it where his head had been seconds before. Turning, he found a guard as the culprit and kneecapped him. The guard screamed and dropped his weapon. Evan picked him up by the throat in one hand. The man who'd been on guard at Sector 1. reactor station would never have been able to do that.

"If you kill me, your soldiers will desert you." his assassin hissed "They'll see you murdering a loyal subject and you'll find yourself very alone against the Wutaiens. You have to let me go. I know you've been stealing money from Shinra and if I die, that'll become public knowledge. Then the Wutaiens will cut you to pieces."

"They'll do that anyway." Evan said, walking towards the window.

"Not with my help. I can assassinate their leaders and win the war for you. I can do everything you need to survive. Everything."

"Can you fly?" He threw the assassin through the reinforced glass viewing window easily, turning away before he hit the water. He had no one left to trust. Anywhere there were people, he was in danger.

At this point he just stopped caring. All the techs in the room were watching him, as you do a dangerous animal that can kill you if it feels like it. Useful, yes, but dangerous. A monster.

There was no way the Shinra could withstand the Wutaien assault. So why did he need the techs? It wasn't as though they could achieve anything.

There was no need to call for silence. A man who has just thrown someone though a window attracts a lot of attention, and not many people are willing to contradict him.

"Go home, folks. There's nothing you can do about the Wutaiens, so just...go home."

There were surprisingly few questions or arguments. There was a brief pause as they wondered if they'd heard correctly, then upon verification with the others, all the staff filed out. Evan crossed to the microphone and broadcast the following message across Junon.

"Hi. All Junon Shinra personnel have been given the next three days off to borrow large amounts of money from their friends, smite their enemies, reflect on their lives, and all the other stuff people do before they think they're going to die. Enjoy, folks. If there's any Wutaien soldiers listening, I'd appreciate it if they did the same and we can resume the battle afterwards. But, if you really feel like attacking and killing, me I'd suggest you hurry up, because if you don't attack soon, you won't have time to get back to Wutai and make your goodbyes before Meteorfall. Thank you."

He left the bridge and went into the Doctor's office nearby. Rufus was on the bed, surrounded by the six members of his Presidential Guard, Hojo's final projects. They were equipped with Ultima materia and each carried twenty turbo Ethers.

"Um...guys?" Evan called across, "If anyone else tries to get in to this room, kill them, okay? Thanks." They'd been designed to accept orders from Rufus, but they recognized him as the current President, and would take his orders unless he tried "Kill Rufus." They set themselves up opposite the doorway. Evan crossed to the window and stared out at the sea.

_I'm out of my mind. _

It's well known to psychologists that when somebody is certain that they have no reason to hope, they become eerily focused. Fear is based on possibility, and clouds judgement. But when there is no possibility of survival, there's no reason to fear, and a sense of clinical dispassion overcomes the mind. When you've nothing to lose, you aren't afraid of losing. Evan fell asleep.

He awoke several hours later, and was mildly surprised to do so. Glancing at his watch, he realised that the Wutaiens should have rallied by now, and his ETD (Expected Time of Death) was have rallied by now, and his ETD (Expected Time of Death) had the Shinra tried to hold them off was twenty minutes away. Either the Wutaiens weren't there, or they were paranoid that they couldn't have been handed a victory this easily, and were being cautious. He waited. Ten minutes later, footsteps disturbed the eerie silence that had encased the usually busy building, and two voices unmistakably speaking Wutaien were heard. He couldn't understand them, but they stopped just outside the door to the Doctor's office. They knew he was there, of course, from thermals, and a voice floated through a few seconds later.

"Hello."

"Hi. Can I assume you're not here to surrender?"

A laugh, and rapid Wutaien, followed by "You can. How about you?"

"Sorry."

"So...if you stood down the garrison, why're you still here?"

"I've nowhere to go."

"...Generally, in these situations, the important part is _from_."

"True, but since Meteorfall is in a couple of days, why not die cleanly now as opposed to starve after the impact?"

"What's your name?"

"McCraken" Evan replied, picking a name at random.

"Want to make up a first name?"

"Why not? How does Pete suit you?"

"It's your headstone it's gonna be on."

"Do I get to choose my epitaph?"

"If you like."

"I want 'If you're reading this, you are almost certainly an assassin. So fuck off and die.'"

"Cheerful."

"What can I say? I'm a very happy man."

"And your seven friends names?"

"Rufus Shinra and bodyguards." There was no point in lying. Rufey was one of the most recognizable faces on the planet.

"Tell me...why did you stand down the garrison?"

_I have no idea. _"I thought it'd irritate you."

"Huh?"

"You go to the trouble of concocting a master plan to sweep away our defenses, and then you find out, after weeks of planning, that it's not actually necessary."

A laugh. "Well, I can't say it wasn't annoying. But better annoying than fatal."

More people approaching outside, a couple of hundred at least. There was a long pause, finally broken by Evan asking "So what's your name?"

"Chekhev."

"Godo with you?"

"No, he's on his way. We were expecting a more...substantial...defense."

"If its so insubstantial, why haven't you stormed the doorway yet?"

"Are you saying that it'll be more difficult to get through that door than through a thousand Shinra soldiers and dock defenses?"

"Yep."

"Cocky, aren't we?"

"You know the first nineteen through that door are dead. So you hesitate. You've been handed an almost bloodless victory, but now you want a completely bloodless victory. You don't want your soldiers to die. I love a general who cares, and I'm sorry to have to do this to you, but I also value my life. Sorry."

"Well, I'm sorry, 'Pete', but that sounds to me like a desperate man who has long lost control of the situation trying to get out of a corner with a losing hand."

_You're exactly right, Chekhev. Unfortunately for me._

"Y'know, if you surrender, you get to walk away alive."

"Not for long. If I'm a captive without weapons, I won't live long."

"Are you suggesting we'd kill a prisoner?"

"No. But you might not care if someone else kills me."

"I'm getting tired of this. Any last words?"

"As in a quote to inspire future generation, if we weren't due to die in three days?"

"Whatever you like."

"No."

"Odd. I'd expect you to keep me talking as long as possible in this situation."

"Yeah, well, I would, but there are no circumstances short of a miracle that involve me surviving the next few days, so why bother?"

"Fair enough."

The windows overlooking the sea on the opposite side of the room simultaneously shattered under the impact of ten Wutaien ninjas abseiling down from the top of the command centre. Evan swept his machine gun across and, still attached to the ropes, there was no way they could dodge. They were rapidly pulled back up again. Simultaneously, ninjas charged in through the door, and were mangled by a flurry of Ultima spells from the Presidential Guard. Six charred corpses later, the attack halted.

"Since you carried the abseiling equipment all this way, might as well use it, huh?" Evan called out through the door.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"I understand. So what now? Any volunteers to be the first through the door?"

"We can wait you out, you know."

"Well, I only have to last three days. Three sleepless nights is doable. And I doubt even you wants to spend their last day of life sitting outside a room far from home waiting for a stubborn bastard to starve to death. How long can you hold your troops here before some of them start filtering back home?"

He glanced at his watch. A minute to his ETD. If he lived past that, he had achieved something.

Something fell down the side of Junon, just outside the window. Not a grenade, but evidently a weapon of some sort if the Wutaiens were trying to throw it at him. A second one successfully landed inside the window. There was an expectant pause while he waited for something to happen. Then...something happened.

The bolt3 at such close range was blinding-exactly Godo's intention. The not-grenade must have been a Swift Bolt, one of Wutai's most famous exports. As ninjas stormed the door, Evan fired blind out the window –at nothing. Godo had been expecting that. And the ninjas storming the door hadn't actually stormed it-just run up to it to make it sound like they were. It was a psych out attempt worthy of Scarlet, serving the purpose of making Evan feel stupid and wasting ammunition. There would be repeated feints over the next hour-some actual thrusts, some not, but he couldn't take chances and would have to fire blind each time, wasting his rounds until he clicked empty and the real push would come.

But apparently Godo hadn't read the psychological warfare pamphlet Scarlet had published, because after three feints in quick succession, he made his thrust. Swift Bolts thrown through the door caught Evan's attention, then ten ninjas attacked through the windows. They were fired on, but kept throwing Bolts at Rufus' bed. The Presidential Guard went berserk, firing off Ultimas at speed, but the ninjas kept coming even through they were dropping like flies, through both entrances. Any attempt on Rufus was met with even deadlier force than they used normally, but the Presidential Guard were trained to protect him, and Godo's tactic paid off as they jumped in front of Shuriken and knife throws aimed at the President. Even so, upwards of thirty Wutaiens died before the last of the Guard was brought down. Then he was alone, and he brought down another seventeen ninjas before somebody landed a Stop spell on him. Frozen, he could only watch as Godo walked into the room, sword raised, cautiously, and held a conference with Chekhev and Shake. Then he saw Evan and walked over.

"You cost me fifty of my best!" The flat of the sword hit him hard enough to crack ribs, but the Stop prevented him from doing anything to soften the impact. The second impact sent him over backwards, stiffly, cracking the back of his head off the ground. The Stop spell wore off abruptly and Evan, since divested of his weapons, lashed out with a foot. Godo caught it between his legs and trapped it. Grabbing the nearest object –which happened to be a syringe from the overturned table next to Rufus' bed-, Evan threw it at Godo, who snagged it out of the air before it reached him, but had to step back, releasing Evan's leg. Evan rolled upright, but a ninja had a sword to his throat instantly, and he stopped moving. This time, Godo's sword flat hit him in the forehead, and he was out instantly.

When he woke up, he was being held by four ninjas while being flogged with a Nine Tails, his armour removed. It was excruciating. Godo didn't like being attacked.

_But hey, I'm now several minutes past my ETD._

About the time the skin on his back started peeling away in strips, Godo suddenly stopped beating him. Once he'd ascended from his pain haze, he ascertained that this was because there was a helicopter hovering outside the Office window, with machine guns trained on Shake, Chekhev, and Godo, who had stopped whipping Evan because he'd found a use for him as a human shield. Tseng, who was manning the central gun, waved. And fired.

What emerged from the barrels weren't bullets but concentrated jets of knockout Gas, like what the Attack Squads were issued. Everyone in the room instantly was knocked out, with complete impartiality, thus negating any nasty hostage situations that might otherwise have developed.

Evan opened his eyes. He was sitting against the wall in the Doctor's office, Tseng was standing over him with a gun barrel pointed at his head.

"Turks are incompetent?" Tseng said softly, thumbing back the hammer.

"I am so sick of this happening!" Evan shrieked, attracting startled glances from those in the room. His feet scythed out and swept Tseng's from under him –Tseng landed on his hands and cartwheeled upright, but he'd lost the gun, and Evan caught it before it hit the ground. A flick knife pricked his throat just as he got the gun barrel under Tseng's chin.

"You're getting good." Tseng told him, apparently unperturbed by being held at gunpoint by somebody who was technically his boss. "Do you want to join the Admin? We get better paid and a free funeral."

"No thank you. Drop the knife, please."

"And your gun?"

"I didn't attack first." Tseng dropped the knife and stood back. Evan hit him on the temple with the gun barrel. Elena, Reno and Rude, who were standing nearby, charged him. He shot the first grenade out of the air, ducked a Mag Rod swipe, laid Reno out with a gun barrel aided uppercut, picked up the Mag rod, fried Rude with it, and then planted his gun barrel between Elena's eyes. She froze.

"Case in point, Tseng" Evan told the unconscious figure. "I shouldn't have been able to do that."

"I cannot believe you beat me." Godo said, smiling. "If that's how you treat people who save your life, it doesn't encourage people to do it in future. How long do you expect to live?"

"I'm hoping for another twenty minutes at least." He stood back, letting Elena tend the fallen. "Now, let's talk terms, shall we?" He glanced out the window. Most of the Wutaien army was strung between two poles out to sea. They couldn't cut their bonds without cutting the wires and falling to their deaths. Ruthless and efficient.

"I'm listening." Bound and on his knees, with two Attack Squad machine guns rammed into his back, Godo might have been chatting over drinks.

"I want full cooperation from Wutai in rebuilding the world after Meteor, free trade of Swift Bolts and Fire Veils, and a surrender of your weapons. A garrison stationed in Wutai from now on will deal with threats from the local wildlife. And, when you get back to Wutai and start sending ninjas to kill me -and you will-, ask yourself if Rufus would have been as generous."

That was that. A few hours later, a convoy of trucks took all Wutaien officers to Midgar, where they were to be held during the disarming and return transport of the Wutaien armies. Evan went back to Midgar. His short sleep before the assault and the subsequent gassing had left him feeling refreshed. He also had added a nation full of assassins and an organization of professional assassins within the company he was running to the list of people who wanted him dead, which made it not quite a fair exchange. But although he was still mentally drained and close to shattering from the strain of his position, he believed he could hold out until Meteorfall. Possibly.


	32. Betrayal

Sorry about the delay. Been really busy. I don't really have the ability to do justice to a description of Meteor hitting Midgar, but I tried. Enjoy.

**Betrayal**

Having apparently fought off a Wutaien invasion force unaided, Evan had begun to gain grudging respect from his underlings. However, he began to struggle to hold on to his authority, life, and sanity, as the assassination attempts increased in frequency. His immediate underlings desire to have his head on a spike had been tempered by the realization that whoever took his place would have to deal with the Wutaiens. With that threat no longer in existence, Shinra employees were free to indulge their ambitions. Evan refused to request a personal bodyguard, despite repeated suggestions, as he felt that all a bodyguard would do to a potential assassin was possibly hold his coat while he worked. Irredeemable paranoia had led to three more incidents of friendly fire on non-assassins, and he was beginning to alienate his remaining support, who were afraid to come into his office for fear of 'accidents'.

The fact was, he just didn't have the diplomatic or political experience to deal with his position. The Shinra employees were involving him in political games that he didn't know the rules of, or even the competitors, as they were always much too intelligent to be traceable. His brief enforced rest through being gassed in Junon had postponed his inevitable implosion under the pressure, but it hadn't eliminated the possibility.

Surprisingly, it seemed he had a surprising amount of support from the grassroots staff of the company. They correctly viewed him as somebody who'd been forced into his position and was trying his best to help the population while attempting to remain alive. That didn't stop them seeing the result, though. He was 26/1 for jumping off the building, and 33/1 for getting fragged (that is, killed by one of his subordinates) by the end of the week. And that was official. He'd paid a visit to his former favourite bookmaking office in one of his few free moments.

It had been an interesting visit. Betting on politics was a time honoured tradition in Shinra annals. Many a low ranked officer had become an upper class citizen by betting on the next person to be assassinated in Shinra's upper ranks. Equally, of course, many had been left destititute. After Chocobo racing, it was the bookie's biggest money spinner, with hurling not too far behind, although it was mostly a slum game. There'd been a brief vogue for Blitzball a few years back, but since no one outside a certain class of bored youth on the Midgar Plate a) liked, b) understood, or c) gave a flying fuck about the sport, the trend had floundered and died.

The outlet, so familiar to him, full of brightly coloured posters and people,

(officially, the city was supposed to be evacuated by now, but many had refused to leave, (understandably, given this was Midgar) fearing looters. Evan's attitude had been _Fuck em, it's their funeral) _had aroused an almost intolerable feeling of homesickness in Evan for the days when he was a grunt nobody cared about, the limit of his duties unloading crates for sector one reactor, knowing no one would ever bother attacking the place. He missed Ree, and the rest of the people from the garrison, playing cards in the evenings. He missed _being bored._ That had been only a month and a half ago, but it seemed like a lifetime. That might sound cheesy, but it was true.

The man behind the counter he went to recognised him. And the fear in his eyes was startling. It took some time to convince him that Evan would not blow his head off if he didn't like his answer. Of course. The lobby had been full of people when he'd shot that secretary, and the rumour would've grown to thirty corpses by the time it reached the edge of the city. And his TV broadcasts wouldn't have helped. In one interview, a breathy and irritating novice journalist had had asked "Is it true you never bleed or cry?" Evan had replied "Actually, I do both. The rumour started due to my 'kill witnesses' policy." He'd intended it for sarcasm, to shut her up. But of course, it had been all over the city in minutes, and added to his 'heartless bastard' image. To be fair, the bit about bleeding was sort of true, but only because the witness to his bleeding was usually the catalyst of it.

Having got his odds, Evan was attacked several times on his way back to the Shinra building. AVALANCHE copycat groups had sprung up like weeds in the aftermath of the Sister Ray debacle, seeking a share of the glory of Shinra's perceived inevitable fall. Mostly Strife/Valentine look-alikes, they had a number of things to learn before they became a worry. Firstly, any injured entity is more dangerous than a healthy one. Secondly, a six foot sword is only a devastating weapon if you're able to lift it. Thirdly, the word 'somersaulting' is not synonymous with the word 'bulletproof.' These were vital lessons for any terrorist group, which these had not, and now, probably never would, learn.

Such groups were becoming widespread, and had the military not been so depleted by recent events, they wouldn't even have been an irritation. Evan, recognising himself as a soldier, not a general, had forced himself to turn over command of the military to Alex. The Shinra army had more important stuff to do, so for one of the only times in history, Midgar's official, civil army, under Mayor Domino was brought onto the streets. Despite being not nearly as well trained as the Shinras, the various resistances began surrendering as soon as batons and bullets started drawing blood. So that was one problem solved.

Between assassins, Evan tried to spare a thought for the two real threats to Shinra, AVALANCHE and Sephiroth. Not that he gave two fucks about the company itself, beyond what he needed to stay alive, but if his underlings thought he had solutions, they'd be less likely to kill him. Hence he requested every scrap of information Shinra had about AVALANCHE, including footage from Nibelheim reactor five years ago and Cait Sith's files.

With two days left before impact, AVALANCHE had finally stopped messing around with whatever the hell they had been doing and headed for the crater. Evan got a cargo plane there first, jettisoning 750,000 Mono Drives into it. They'd be slaughtered, but they'd take some of the wildlife with them. Even a Tonberry or a Purple Dragon would be cut to pieces by a thousand simultaneous Mono Drive attacks. By the time the last one fell, it'd be easier for AVALANCHE to get to Sephiroth.

Evan had never exactly been a Cloud Strife fan, but he'd had a grudging respect for anyone who could survive as long as he had with BOTH Shinra and Sephiroth trying to bring him down. That respect had evaporated upon discovering, in Reeve's dialogue files, that the man was almost directly responsible for Meteorfall, having made the entirely selfish decision that, as he was a research specimen whose past was a lie, no one else had the right to exist. Valentine was in the same situation, but _he_ had merely locked himself in a coffin for thirty years, repenting his mistakes and swearing revenge on Hojo (as opposed to actually doing anything about it.). This, in Evan's humble opinion, was a better reaction. He'd also had the depressing experience of predicting the outcome of any battle with an ancient powerful Calamity, an extremely acclaimed professional soldier with supernatural abilities (including the ability to directly control the actions of the leader of his adversaries) on one side, and the aforementioned leader, a barmaid, a stuffed toy, a hyper, easily distracted kleptomaniac, a pilot, a coal miner, an admittedly powerful ex-research specimen, and an ex-Turk who didn't really have the heart to murder the son of his former lover, even if he wasn't actually related to him, on the other. Assessing this equation, Evan had come to the following conclusion, although it must be said that the Tranquillisers circulating in his system at the time meant that he was in the depressive side of his drug induced mental cycle, possibly resulting in downplaying of AVALANCHE's abilities. The conclusion was: _We are fucked!_

It was important, however, that he have some sort of exclusive method for dealing with AVALANCHE to convince his executives they needed him, so he spent some time going through each character profile in detail, searching for particular threats. Eventually satisfied, and with no other tasks being sent up to do, he spent another while playing draughts with a computer program set to medium difficulty, before alarms went off all over the building, just as Tseng opened up a connection from below.

"Sir! Get down here! Now!"

There were two things he noticed as he burst into the conference room one minute and thirty seven seconds later. First, that Palmer was holding a report marked 'Urgent'-obviously concerning Meteor. Secondly, Reeve was absent and a Cait Sith doll, obviously on a direct connection with the one with AVALANCHE, was plugged into the main screen. He came to his conclusion just as Cloud Strife's voice, full of righteous rage, echoed through the room and the visual flicked into life.

"Come, planet!

Show us your answer!

And Sephiroth!

To the settling of everything!"

Forty minutes later, Evan spoke.

"Sephiroth's...laughing?"

Palmer shrugged. "I'm not surprised. Meteor's speed considerably increased as soon as Sephiroth realised Jenova was down. It'll impact today instead of tomorrow, in about...five hours."

"The death of his bestial forms is irrelevant. His consciousness still holds Meteor in place and on course." This was from the recently promoted head of Shinra's Science department, one of Hojo's senior researchers who had managed to survive the mass escape-a man named Cooper.

"I don't know about that" Palmer replied, shrugging, "but the momentum will keep it coming if nothing else."

"Cloud's spaced out." a tech reported, glancing at the screen.

"So we're dead?" Tseng asked the question, directed at nobody in particular.

"It depends what you mean by _we._.." Cooper responded thoughtfully-evidently he'd been taking lessons from Hojo. "If by we you mean those of us in this room, probably, yes. If by 'we' you mean life as a whole, I don't think so. Sephiroth is not trying to destroy everything, just enough to gain the spirit energy he needs. He is trying to become a God, and there is little point to that without lesser creatures to rule."

"How comforting" Tseng noted, rolling his eyes.

"It should be, actually. Think from a more general viewpoint, and you have reached enlightenment."

On the screen, Cloud recovered, but an immediate violent earthquake left him hanging off the side of a cliff with Tifa in one arm. The Shinra building trembled, as the same earthquake struck it, and the execs glanced at each other nervously, aware that the building's structure had been much weakened recently. But it held. Just as they were relaxing, a man in Shinra uniform ran in, said "You forgot your gun, sir!" to Evan, and shot him repeatedly with a hi-powered rifle before he could react.

The bullets were chest shots, bouncing off his Weapon armour leaving nothing more than bruises, but the close range and high calibre bullets meant he was knocked back into the screen he was standing in front of, showering him in broken glass-which again, cut him but didn't do serious damage. The _real_ damage was done by the electrical current flowing through the machine, sending him into spasms. Had he been wearing steel instead of Weapon scale armour he would almost certainly have been killed. As it was, the last thing he saw before fainting was his assassin, Alex' rapier through his throat, Tseng's bullets in his skull, and serious burns from Palmer's Mako gun spread all over his visible skin.

He woke up in Shinra's Nap Room, otherwise empty apart from the bendy hooky thing he'd been told in training 'froze an imprint of your Mako aura in that moment in time', whatever _that_ meant. Staggering upright (and he was weak enough that he needed to stagger), he went looking for anti-burn cream. Had he not been holding on to the doorpost as he exited the room, he would instantly have been swept out the window by the wind. Upper Midgar was ablaze, whirlwinds of crimson fire simultaneously shredding and incinerating buildings and creatures alike-although the only creatures remaining on the plate were those stuck there, held in Hojo's holding pens -up to now, at least. Watching, Evan saw a Behemoth effortlessly lifted up by a whirlwind, thrown with almost sentient precision against the plate before finally having its head torn off. A dragon, released from its prison, took wing, avoiding whirlwind and fragments of Meteor thrown at it with incredible skill, before finally running out energy to fight against the raging torrents and dropping like a stone. A crazed Crimson Hound, carried by the storm, landed a few feet away from Evan and instantly lunged. Without releasing his deathgrip on the doorpost or taking his eyes off the howling inferno, he caught it by the tentacle and hurled it back out into the raging wind. Fascinated, he continued gazing out into the storm. He'd expected Meteorfall to be horrible, and in this his expectations had been met. But he hadn't expected it to be beautiful.

In theory, his flimsy grip on the doorpost should not have been able to keep him from being sucked out of the building at the mercy of the winds. Any force able to suspend an adult Behemoth in midair should have been able to tear his arms from his sockets without difficulty. But, inexplicably, the whirlwinds seemed to be expressly ignoring Shinra building while devastating the rest of Midgar. Whether this was due to a desire of Sephiroth to draw out the deaths of Shinra employees or just incompetence on his part was a mystery, but the winds were weak enough that Evan eventually relinquished his grip and went looking for a camera to record the moment, aware that he would be the only person, living or dead, to see this moment and wanting to record it.

Successfully taking his photo after finding a camera left behind in somebody's locker, he immediately dropped it as a fragment of Meteor slammed into the building as the whirlwinds suddenly remembered it was there. A large chunk of the building, encompassing three floors, collapsed- not the part he was standing on, fortunately. The camera dropped from his hand as he grabbed a wall to keep his balance from the vibrations of the impact. Trying to move to the centre of the building , he accidentally kicked the camera, sending it over the side of the building. Much later, it was found by a W.R.O. soldier in Midgar City, damaged but with the film still intact, and the contents became among the most famous images of all time.

Meteor was not having it entirely its own way. With Sephiroth no longer concentrating on holding it together, the cracks created by the impact of Shinra no. 26 had begun to reappear, and it was fragmenting. Somebody had activated Midgar's anti aircraft defences before they'd fled, and many smaller Meteor fragments had been obliterated by the more effective parts of the artillery. While the whirlwinds and fragments were destroying buildings, they could not yet penetrate the actual city structure-the reactors and plate were holding. In spite of himself, and the fact that he had had absolutely nothing to do with the process, Evan felt a burst of pride at the quality of Shinra manufacture.

He continued watching the calamity until he was forced to seek shelter as the Lifestream spectacularly counterattacked -for fear of being blinded; the brightness filters on his mask overwhelmed by the power of the light and his close proximity to the clash. Furious with himself that he couldn't catch _this _on camera, he fled deeper into the building, and did not emerge from his refuge until, hours later, people began to filter back onto the plate, and he was found by a Shinra expeditionary force.

To cap off a perfect day, a massive uprising was triggered when Shinra tried to reassert control. Led by Mayor Domino and his civil defence force, the populace rose up against the Shinra. It later emerged that Mayor Domino had used his recent deployment to quell the anti Shinra groups to paint himself as the sole champion of the people attempting to defend them from terrorists while the 'callous bastards' (his term) at Shinra looked after their own interests and were indifferent to the fate of the populace. He played it superbly, and a huge army of civilians joined his revolution, which swelled to ridiculous proportions. Shinra's depleted army wasn't stupid enough to contest them, and Mayor Domino declared himself 'King of Midgar'. Reeve, who had apparently vanished after hooking up the execs to Cait Sith's video feed, resurfaced organising the building of a settlement for refugees at the edge of Midgar provisionally known as Edge, to be renamed later in committee. Domino's army began trickling away to the settlement, as people realised that, well...he was a self serving prick. But his army remained substantial, and only the devastated, hazardous condition of the upper plate currently kept them from sending Shinra crashing down. The Shinra compounds, built as part of the general structure of the city when it was originally built, were more structurally sound than the residential buildings added later, so the actual Shinra properties were relatively undamaged, although Shinra Building itself was in a horrific condition. What remained of the Shinra army was safe behind the devastated wreckage littering the upper plate. Any attempt by Domino to attack Shinra without a major cleanup operation would result in casualties from crossing treacherous wreckage, and massive desertions if he continued to attempt to force them across it. This happy circumstance meant that Shinra employees stayed loyal, knowing they had nowhere else to go. Packs of feral Guard Hounds, released from Shinra institutions by the impact, roamed the city, harassing Domino's army further as well as the surrounding wastes.

As every general knows, an army that isn't doing anything is more difficult to hold together. With the initial excitement dying down, and no attempted coup of Shinra obvious in the future, Domino's army began to lose its excitement, and his revolution began to lose momentum. Reeve, after Guard Hound attacks in his refugee camps, requested several regiments of Domino's army to protect the inhabitants, and he was forced to accede to this or lose his 'champion of the people' image, depleting his forces further. His followers became bored and disheartened. But it'd only take a spark to ignite them again.

In the Shinra building, the assassination attempts slackened because it was incredibly dangerous to try to cross Midgar City at present. Structures that had survived the impact had been weakened, and could collapse with no warning.

AVALANCHE had vanished after Meteorfall, to recover from their attack on Sephiroth, but everyone knew that they'd eventually turn their attention to Shinra, and when they did, the populace would fall in behind them, and this time Shinra wouldn't be saved by the condition of the city, because AVALANCHE would lead, not order. Evan's initial anti-AVALANCHE ideas, sketchy as they were, now became vitally important. At the time, he hadn't believed that he'd ever live long enough to put them into practice, and the only reason he'd bothered was to try to convince the execs they needed him so they'd leave him alone until Meteorfall. He'd led them to believe that he had thorough and complete methods of dealing with each member, and was only giving them sketchy outlines so they'd keep him alive, when in fact the sketchy outline was all he had. He'd talked himself into a corner, and now the execs-and, indeed, other employees- were demanding he share his ideas for the sake of the company's future. He'd been forced to schedule a meeting with Alex or face mass mutiny. But he still only had sketchy ideas about what to do about AVALANCHE, and currently was desperately trying to think of a strategy. Alex was due in twenty minutes.

_Hang on...not everyone joined AVALANCHE to fight Shinra. For the later ones, Sephiroth was the focus. So I only have to think of something for the ones who specifically hate Shinra. _

Minutes later, he was thinking '_Why the fuck did we have to massacre so many towns?'_

"Sir, General Alex is here to see you." The receptionist in the lobby looked nervous. Evan couldn't blame her. Apart from him, she was now the only person stationed in Shinra Building-even the sixty sixth floor was now too dangerous to staff. Evan had stayed in the President's office because the man who'd designed it was as paranoid as he was. Dangerous though it was, with the building empty, it was also silent, and the President's office, even the carpeted parts, rang like a bell when stepped on. Nobody could get close to him without him knowing exactly where they were, and he'd let it be known that anyone approaching without an appointment was looking at a Valentine Shuffle-a torture method invented back when Shinra was still a manufacturing company. Suffice it to say it was an extremely efficient deterrent.

Believing that he had enough strategies devised to satisfy his general, he brought up the file on Alex and examined it. Multiple decorations, but no close associations with Hojo or Scarlet –he'd managed to get them on sheer talent. Interesting... No patrons on the Executive Council, he survived independently. Excellent military general as well as fighter –that was rare. Exceptional soldiers often made poor commanders. His decorations weren't anything special, usually something simple given to soldiers just above par, with the exception of one for beating Sephiroth in a one to one fencing match –that one had been pushed for by Hojo, to make sure everyone knew what an achievement it was to defeat his creation. Stupid, really. Evan had never been a swordfighter, but he knew that fencing was very different from actually fighting to kill. The spacing between the decorations was interesting. Having spent time as a Grunt as well as on the Executive council, Evan had a unique perspective on soldier's files. The decorations were usually spaced widely apart-sometimes years at a time. While the decorations weren't anything special, there were too many of them to be just luck. If he understood the pattern correctly, Alex had tried as much as possible to avoid notice by officials, but when he was under pressure his talent became noticeable. An exceptional fighter, but a pragmatist who knew how to play politics. A dangerous combination for his superiors, as people like this tended to be ambitious as well, though patient.

When Alex entered his office after the long climb, he was accompanied by two other SOLDIERS-a small man bearing a battleaxe and a huge man, at least twelve foot tall, carrying what first appeared to be a flamethrower.

_Heh...why is it that whenever fighters come in pairs, one will be huge and the other tiny?_

After a moment he realised his mistake. The man with the battleaxe was above average height, but he was merely dwarfed by his companion-who was even taller than he first appeared. The weapon he'd assumed to be a flamethrower was in fact a miniature Mako Reactor, the tube emitting high powered Mako Shells like Sister Ray, albeit at a much smaller scale. While Palmer's version of the weapon used a Mako charged battery, this one was powered by a functional reactor. The shells would be devastating when fired –think Bahamut at point blank range. Thankfully, Alex's...guards? Fan Club? Stalkers? remained at the top of the two staircases, leaving him to advance alone.

"Alexander Lindsiem, at you service, sir." he said, saluting.

"Heh...thanks. Who're your friends?"

"Just that. Friends. They're loyal to me, you don't have to worry about confidentiality."

Loyal to _me, _he had said. Not you, not Shinra, me. Was this going to turn into a coup? Or was that just his paranoia?

"So...Firstly, congratulations on your handling of the military. It was hopeless, and you brought us through. I'd promote you to Permanent General of Shinra forces, but any changes I make to Shinra staff will immediately be reversed when Rufus recovers, so there's not much point."

"We are not safe yet, sir. Once AVALANCHE get around to us, we will fall, and I won't be able to stop it. Neither will you. Unless..."

"AVALANCHE are not as big a threat as they seem."

"Is there reasoning behind that?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to tell us?"

"That's the problem. If I tell you, I have no more value to the company –with Wutai not currently a threat, they don't need a figurehead."

"I'll keep it to myself."

"Will you?"

"Sir, I understand your concerns, but If you don't tell me, nothing'll happen!" Alex leaned forward and slammed his fists into the desk. "I don't need to prove my loyalty to this company! It was verging on ruin with the deaths of Gya and Kya, but I wasn't tied down like the rest of the Execs. I could easily have left! But I didn't! Because I care about this company, and wanted to make sure it survived! Whatever you say won't leave this room until you want it to, I swear, but I have to know! I won't order soldiers into battle unless they have some chance of success! I'm not throwing anyone into a meat grinder without reason, not any more! Tell me or I'm gone, right now, and see if the soldiers will follow you then! And if you say something empty to fend me off, massacring your underlings to preserve yourself, it will not go unpunished! If you don't have a plan, you can walk out of here now –I'll give you a fucking chopper to get you free of these people, I mean it, you can find somewhere far away to live and be safe from your assassins, but if you have a plan, a solid, _real _plan, that'll save lives, I want to hear it!"

"...Okay. Listen. There are eight surviving members of Strife's team. But we don't have to worry about all of them.

"Strife is difficult, but consider what we know about him. He gave the black materia to Sephiroth and is directly responsible for Meteorfall and the release of the Weapons- which, between them, cost an awful lot of deaths. If we get word to him that we can make that common knowledge, he'll leave us alone if we do likewise. Tifa will follow his lead. She'll do nothing to jeopardise him. That's two down.

"Now that Hojo's dead, Valentine doesn't care about us. With Sephiroth down,

Red will go home to Cosmo Canyon. Kisaragi doesn't have the guts to do anything big on her own, and the rest don't trust her since she stole their materia. They won't follow her lead. We'll have to deal with thefts and maybe some assassination attempts -she's a ninja, after all- but if she does anything big, we can threaten to burn Wutai to the ground and she'll fall into line.

"Highwind doesn't really have any grudge against Shinra. He wanted his airship back, now he's got it. If we really need him on our side some day we can re-start the Space Program, if we have enough cash to spare for it. Wallace is tricky but manageable. He doesn't like Shinra, and he has genuine reasons not to. We burned his town, killed his wife. I don't know if Rufey will buy this, but the best way to deal with him is to gradually phase out Mako Reactors in favour of coal furnaces. He's not somebody who'll be swayed by cash, but if he thinks that he needs us to revive Corel from its current state he'll leave us alone. It'll cost us, but it's better in the long run. We'll have to worry about carbon emissions in a century or so, but that's their problem."

There was a long pause.

"And Reeve?"

"Reeve?"

"He's quit and set up a rival organisation to look after refugees. Called World Revival Association or something

"In that case, there's nothing I can do about him. There, Shinra's on its own."

Another pause. Then Alex smiled.

"Seven out of eight's not bad. And I thought any plan you'd come up with'd be something you'd cobble together while I was on route here."

Something must've shown on his face, because Alex suddenly laughed.

"I knew it! In that case, congratulations on your ability to think under pressure!"

"Do I still get that trip away?"

"Sorry, you're better at this job than I could ever be. And I owe you an apology, actually. I thought you'd be a figurehead that'd bring the company to ruin."

"I almost was. It's nothing."

"Let me finish...I thought you'd get a lot of people killed, and let the executives get off...so I set the Tsviets on you. I'm sorry."

Evan would always regret what happened next. Alex would undoubtedly have proven a great ally in the rest of his presidency. But a lot of assassination attempts recently had come close to killing him, but he'd hadn't found any of the people who'd hired them. The frustration had been building in him for a long time, and at the discovery of one of his tormentors, he released his anger by firing, not caring that he was attacking one of the most gifted soldiers in the world or that said soldier was now his ally.

Alex was caught by surprise, but although he still had his hands planted on the table, and Evan had been holding his machine gun just out of sight the entire time, he was down behind the desk as Evan fired. A Mako Shell from the big SOLDIER shattered Evan's Barrier and melted a large hole in the window behind him (it had recently been re-glazed for a second time) just as Alex launched his counterattack with terrible liquid speed. Aware that he'd never get the gun up in time to block the strike, Evan batted desperately at the blade with his bare hand, successfully preventing the thrust from penetrating his skull at the cost of the middle, ring, and little fingers of his right hand. Lunging before Alex could draw back his blade, he hit the SOLDIER in the throat with his other fist, and heard something crack with the impact. Alex fell back, and was caught by the onrushing SOLDIER with the battleaxe. Retrieving his machine gun, Evan tried to fire again but almost blew his feet off as the gun slipped in his bloody hand. A second mako shell hit him in the chest, blasting him out through the window and almost over the balcony as well. Moving to one side, he trained his weapon carefully on the hole-

_There's a door as well you stupid bastard!_

He ducked without turning and the battleaxe hissed over his head. Spinning, he fired a burst at stomach height –his remaining fingers couldn't take the recoil and he almost dropped it again-the SOLDIER blocked the bullets with the blade of the axe and sent in a scything sweep at his legs-Evan jumped back, and ducked again at a reflection in the side of the building –another shell flew past. The axe SOLDIER saw it and blocked it, but was knocked over the balcony by the impact, catching the edge in one hand while –incredibly- retaining his weapon in the other. Sprinting past as the Mako cannon soldier ran to help his fellow, Evan burst through the door back into the office. A blur of motion from his left was all the warning he had as Alex's rapier sparked off the doorpost where his head had been.

Aware that if he counterattacked he'd be skewered, Evan kept running, even though the glass hadn't been replaced on any other floor and it was dangerous. On the stairs down from the president's office, he made the mistake of slowing and was rewarded with a deep cut on the shoulder, arm severing if he hadn't moved. Amazed that he was surviving so long, he kept running, and didn't take another wound until he was hamstrung entering the elevator. His leg collapsed, and he rolled in time to writhe aside from Alex's following thrust. Managing to catch the rapier's blade in the trigger guard of his machine gun, he forced it above his head, and after a struggle both sword and gun went over the side of the elevator (it hadn't been re-glazed either, which had been why Alex and co. had walked up the building). With both of them bare handed, Evan was no match for the genetically enhanced SOLDIER, who soon had his knees on Evan's chest and hands on his throat. An attempt by Evan to draw his sidearm resulted in his wrist being broken again, courtesy of a snake fast strike that was probably bone breaking even if he hadn't broken it already recently. It was accompanied by a stunning crack to the jaw immediately afterwards, leaving Evan dazed and unable to do anything about the hands on his throat.

With his own throat injured by Evan's first punch(the only time he'd managed to touch him), Alex found it difficult to speak, but he managed to choke out "Wh...Why?" with great difficulty

"In..stinct" Evan replied with equal difficulty, his due to the hands around his throat. "Accident. I'm...sorry..." Alex believed him. He saw it in his eyes. The grip slackened, and would have probably been released but for an unfortunate coincidence.

During their struggle, the lift had been descending at speed, and now it opened in the front lobby. A second unfortunate occurrence was that Tseng was wheeling in Rufus to reclaim his company at the time, and both of them had guns.

"Don't kill him!" Evan managed to shriek, but too late for Alex, who already had eight rounds in his skull –fatal even for him. He fell forward on top of Evan, who was drenched in a hot shower of blood. Still alive for that instant, hurt and betrayal were clear in his expression. Evan would have sighed, had he not feared to swallow his blood.

"Come to reclaim your empire, Rufey?" he asked, once the corpse had dragged off him.

"You will show me respect." Rufus said coldly.

"Why? You're going try to kill me anyway."

"Careful, sir. He's good" Tseng noted, raising his own weapon slowly.

"What makes you say that?" Rufus asked curiously, ignoring Tseng.

"Everyone else has."

"Maybe I will."

"Not today. I've been a somewhat public figure recently. People will wonder what happened to me."

"They'll know exactly what happened to you. That's the point."

"I'm not sure you fully understand the current state of your company. You should make sure you're up to speed before doing anything irreversible."

Rufus hesitated.

The other elevator opened, and the two SOLDIERs emerged. Seeing Alex's body, they dropped into fighting crouches. A full detachment of Shinra soldiers and general staff poured in through the main entrance, as well as the rest of the Turks. The SOLDIERs relaxed.

Rufus hadn't moved.

_Alex must've told them to come in if he wasn't down! And Rufus thinks this's a trap, that I've killed all his Executive council, used the army to seize power, and this was a trap to get him in reach! Tseng hasn't told him anything yet!_

The insight was sudden and not entirely rational, but strong.

"Are you going to kill me?" His tone appeared totally indifferent.

"Well, y'know, I'd love to, but that'd mean I'd be stuck with your job. So...no, not unless you try to kill me first." He raised his voice. "Employees of Shinra! My reign of terror is over!" Silence from the crowd. "His reign of terror is about to resume!" Even Tseng smiled. Evan glanced down, his eyes now unfocused. "I've always wanted to say that." He raised his voice again. "I renounce all claim to the presidency of Midgar –which, by the way, since I had zero claim to it in the first place, means fuck all- as soon as I am deemed fully recovered from my current condition."

He tried to stand, but, of course, his leg couldn't support him. Finally giving in and falling asleep from blood loss, his last intelligible words were "Can somebody go find my fingers?"

**Two chapters left. Been a long time since I started this, hasn't it? The scene with Alex at the top of the tower is actually one of the first ones I thought of, at the same time as chapter 2. Kinda sad to be nearly finished. The 'kill witnesses' comment was stolen from the original Ask Sephiroth fic, the one that sparked all the imitations. I can't remember the author's name, but it was something Japanese ish. **


	33. Enter Riana

_Sorry again about the delay. This was a hard chapter to write. Long conversations don't suit me._

**Enter Riana**

Three days later found Evan leaving a medical facility in upper sector five on crutches, handgun clenched in his fist and machine gun slung on his back, despite the inconvenient weight of it. He was in no state to leave, realistically-he still hadn't recovered enough blood and he needed rest, but keeping in mind the extraordinary numbers of people gunning for his head, including the newly reinstated head of the company paying his medical fees, he'd decided that a moving target was hardest to hit and he'd better get the hell away from Midgar as soon as he could move without collapsing. For the past few days, everyone had been too occupied recuperating and assessing the damages resulting from Meteorfall to care much about him, but that would change, and the further away he was by the time that happened, the better.

It had been an eventful few days. Reeve had neatly stolen Mayor Domino's army from under him, and turned it into an as yet unnamed organization dedicated to rebuilding the world and preventing other catastrophes. He'd established a permanent base already, and refugees were flooding there already to escape from the now common Guard Hound attacks. Shinra employees, up until now staying with Shinra because they had nowhere else to go, were suddenly presented with somewhere to go _to_, and had begun deserting in huge numbers. Overnight, Reeve's organization had become incredibly powerful, while Shinra had shrunk to a small knot of hardcore loyalists.

Their situation was not helped by Midgar's condition after Meteorfall. The city was devastated, the plate itself intact but no two buildings on it left standing. It was almost certainly not worth the time and expense of rebuilding. Midgar was fast becoming a ghost town, populated by scavengers and a few people who had yet to leave for reasons of their own. Shinra's long reign of absolute power was now at an end.

Evan's current condition was not really travelworthy. Medics had re attached his middle finger, but the ring and little fingers on his right hand were beyond hope. He currently had to move on crutches, and he'd been told that even when his leg healed he'd bear a limp for the rest of his life. That was as good as a badge for any searching assassins, removing the option of merely moving to Junon, his second choice. He was too readily identifiable even in a city, so if he was to survive, he'd have to find somewhere isolated. A cave somewhere or a shack in a mountain range. A city creature to his core, Evan found this idea unsettling.

It started to rain. The weather had become stormy and unsettled since Meteor upset the air currents, making crossing the city even more hazardous than it already was. Steel didn't absorb groundwater, so even the lightest drizzle flowed until it joined up with the rest of the water and became a torrent. Shinra had created a hugely complex drainage system to counter this, but it had of course been irreparably damaged by Meteorfall. Evan hesitated, then sheltered in the wreck of what had been somebody's front porch, listening to the raindrops pounding off the plate. He'd always loved the sound of water hitting the plate, and closed his eyes to enjoy it. It'd be a long time before he'd get to hear it again, even if everything somehow worked out and he was able to return someday. The odds of this happening were fairly long, but then, so had the odds of him living anywhere near this long.

Raindrops on metal...a beautiful sound. He'd loved patrolling at 3am in the pouring rain, making him almost unique in the garrison, although once he was assigned to the reactor these opportunities were rare. Nothing happened in that weather, and you could just walk and listen to the clanging around you. And if somebody did want to attack you, you'd hear them coming, because to the connoisseur, drops on flesh or cloth sounded different to metal, and, shortly afterwards, that was how he found out he was being followed.

To his credit, Reno merely sighed when he walked around the corner into the gun barrel, not attempting to raise his weapon.

"Fuck. You're a bitch to follow, you know that? How'd you know I was here?"

"I'd tell you, but then you'd be more careful next time. Were you trying to kill me or just find out where I was going?"

The only reply was a mutter of "...Got held up by a guy on fucking crutches! I'm never gonna live this down..."

"Answer me, or you're not going to live, full stop."

" You don't kill in cold blood."

In spite of himself, Evan laughed. "Where have you _been?_"

"They were hot blood. That's different."

"So what am I going to do with you?"

"Tie me up and leave me here?"

"I don't have any rope."

"I always carry some. It's always best to give your adversary other options than killing you."

"Help me with the knots, right?"

"You're going to shoot me, aren't you?"

"Yup."

"In cold blood?"

"Well, it's like this, right? I had access to Shinra records as President, which gave me any number of reasons to get hot blooded. But I've one in particular."

Reno wasn't laughing now. "And what was that?"

"Sector seven."

_Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam._ Reno collapsed back. Evan would have dearly loved to kill him, but he didn't want to antagonize Shinra any more than he already had, so he settled for three chest shots and one in each foot, ensuring that the bullets stuck inside him so he'd have to seek medical help instead of just a quick Cure3. Then Evan moved on as fast as his crutches allowed.

Half a city away, he suddenly realized something.

_I made a fucking speech! I could have just shot him without a word, but I wanted to talk! I'm turning into an executive! Fuck! Next there'll be maniacal laughter, and once you cross that line there's no going back!_

He was so absorbed by that thought that he made a wrong turn into a more disreputable part of the city. The inhabitants were probably long gone, but it was still a stupid mistake. The way through had been a short cut when he was a soldier in Midgar, fully fit and able to deal with any attacks, and he'd taken it out of habit. But now, on crutches, he'd make an inviting target for any denizens still around.

No attack materialized, and he felt almost as though he'd get out of the city alive when somebody coughed behind a pile of old tires and a weathercock. He was being followed. And probably by more than one. He hadn't been attacked so far because the pusuers were thinking 'Why would anybody with an 800 grand price on his head walk through here on crutches? Has to be a trap.' But they'd attack before he left their territory rather than lose him completely. To find out more about his lurking friends, Evan started to sing.

"**Ten years ago...I fell in love with a Junon girl-she took my heart,**

**Then she went and screwed, some guy that she knew, -**." -a smothered laugh from behind a bulldozer blade- "**And now I'm in Midgar with a broken heart...**

**Oh broken hearted Hoover fixer sucker guy..."** There were more laughs, and he noted every one of them. By the time he finished the song, there were over twenty pursuers identified. When they started stepping out from behind cover, he started shooting instantly, not even bothering to wait for them to identify themselves. He couldn't use the machine gun he preferred, because the recoil would almost certainly overbalance him, so he was left with his sidearm. This meant he had to pick his shots carefully, but although his first shot bounced off armour, the next seventeen gave him kills. Then somebody swung at him with a sword, and when he tried to move back his crutches slipped on the rain slicked metal ground, slipping out from under him and keeping his arms pinned so he couldn't soften the impact. Then there was the familiar sensation of a bullet entering his shoulder. Then...eerie silence. Fighting free of his crutches, he looked up. Sword guy had suddenly sprouted a knife hilt from his throat. His surviving attackers abruptly fled. Slotting in a fresh clip, Evan sighted on the nearest, blowing out the back of his head just as he reached the shelter of a giant robotic claw. Glancing around to find the source of their sudden terror, he located the Turk, empty hands raised, twenty feet behind him. Shinra might be a shadow of its former self, but the Turk uniform still invoked respect (read: mind numbing terror) from Midgar's inhabitants. Panicked, assuming this was Reno miraculously healed and vengeful, Evan tried to get up and failed miserably, cracking his head hard on the street. Even dizzier, he succeeded in rising with the nearest wall as an aid, slightly hampered by the fact that he had to keep his weapon trained. He moved closer, through the pouring rain, keeping his gun trained, but alert for other threats, stopping at just enough distance that he couldn't be attacked, but close enough he wouldn't miss.

"Hello, Evan" Riana said.

* * *

She appeared disappointed, but not particularly surprised at her less than warm reception, resisting the urge to turn as he circled around behind her, gun hand still raised.

"Walk on."

She obliged, moving slowly, keeping hands in view like a good hostage. That was a good sign. If she'd suddenly been chatty and normal, he'd have assumed that she was acting, but visible nerves and caution were more indicative of somebody who hadn't expected to be talking to him. So...

"Are you here to track me or kill me?"

"Would you believe me if I said neither?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't have intervened back there, I'd have just waited and finished off the winner." _Fair point. So...that leaves tracking me._ "What were you doing walking around here on crutches, anyway?"

"Leaving. I took a wrong turn on the way out of the city."

She didn't reply. He paused as they passed the corpse of the unlucky runner. She walked on for a few paces, then, not hearing the click of his crutches, stopped.

"Can I turn?"

He didn't reply, and after a second, she cautiously turned, seeing him crouching as best as he was able next to the corpse.

"This isn't some opportunistic street thug...this looks like HBI Heavy Enforcer Armour, only with the yellow and black paint scraped off...this was a deliberate ambush...but...how did they know where I'd be?"

"Well, you're getting pricey to officially assassinate," Ree pointed out, "You hit a million gil after what happened with Alex. Maybe they decided to cut out the middle man."

"Yeah?" Now he was up, Shinra.17 Handgun ready again. He gestured her to move on.

"And how do you know that?"

Had he not been holding her at gunpoint, she'd have rolled her eyes. "Because I knew you. Wouldn't you have taken an interest?"

"Mmm."

They moved on, this time side by side, but he still had his gun in hand and she'd seen how fast he could move against those ambushers. Once, she'd had the faster reflexes, but now, she doubted she'd get close to drawing. And he was watching her. Not completely-he glanced around into every shadow as he moved, but he was still watching her between flickery glances in every direction. It wasn't a my-god-she's-pretty stare. Those, while irritating, she could deal with. This was a threat analysis, where-are-the-concealed-weapons stare, which, while completely to be expected, (part of the Turk job description was 'assassin' after all) she found unsettling.

For his part, Evan was wondering if he'd be able to shoot her without provocation. It'd only been a month and a half since he'd last seen her, after all. They'd had a fun, if slightly odd relationship since he'd met her six years ago, in the showers in Shinra. That sounded good, but it wasn't quite the steamy scene that was suggested. Nobody used the Shinra showers except out of necessity, but when there was necessity, Shinra didn't want anything inhibiting their employees efficiency, especially something as simple as awkwardness. So, cadets, for the first seven days after they qualified, were required to use the communal showers. During that time, they were joined and hit on by any number of stunning Shinra actors/actresses, depending on gender and/or preferences, leaving them prepared by the end of the seven days for situations where they were thrown together with real people. _She _hadn't been an actress, but had spent the previous day exercising Chocobos in the pouring rain in knee deep mud, (Before she joined the Shinra, she'd worked at the Chocobo farm for two years, which had left her with a legacy of 1), an excellent eye for a good racing Chocobo, which meant she was ordered to tend to them a lot, and 2), a deep and passionate hatred of all things Chocobo) and hadn't even known the shower was in use when she walked in (as mentioned, nobody ever used the Shinra showers except cadets and actresses, so she'd assumed they'd be empty). He'd been packing up when she walked in...

_Evan was just about leaving when the creature walked in,__ fully clothed, muttering to itself, and stood under the nearest faucet, turning it on, ignoring him. Evan blinked._

"_You mean you're not going to declare undying love for me?"_

"_What? I...wasn't planning to. Should I?" _

"_The last twenty seven women have."_

_The water under her was brown by this point, muck running off in waves, revealing the shape of the Shinra uniform beneath._

"_Oh, right...you're a cadet."_

"_Yep. What happened to you?"_

"_A Chocobo. And a swamp."_

"_Em...does this happen to every cadet? I mean, I know I'm irresistibly hot, but twenty seven in a row is stretching it slightly."_

_She burst out laughing__. "No comment."_

"_Ok. D'you mind me asking, under all that shit what colour hair have you?"_

"_Uh...why?"_

"_I want to see if I'm calculating correctly. I've a bet on with a friend."_

"_Browny red."_

"_Fuck! I thought I was due a blonde!"_

"_You might be. Wait til tomorrow. You been returning accepting any of the declarations of love?"_

"_...Not yet."_

"_Accept one. If you don't, you might start being approached by men...or Guard Hounds. It's easier just to accept one."_

"_Hmm...thanks."_

"_Don't mention it. Seriously, don't. I could really get in trouble."_

"_Ok. Seeya."_

_Evan left. Then he poked his head back in._

"_Hey, Chocobo lady?"_

"_Mmm?"_

"_What's your name?"_

"_Riana."_

"_Ree-anna or Ree-yannah?"_

"_Well, I couldn't tell the difference there, so they're both fine. What about you?"_

"_Evan."_

"_Ok. Seeya."_

And, unlike everyone else he'd met in the Shinra showers, he actually did see her again.

He realized she'd said something to him. Cursing his inattention –it could easily have cost him, he dragged himself back to the present

"What?"

"I said, I didn't think you had it in you to kill in cold blood."

"Well, I learned fast. It was that or die."

"Mmm."

There was silence for a time. Then Evan said suddenly "Anything interesting happen since I saw you last?" The question was pure habit, and he only realized after he said it how stupid it sounded, especially in their current situation. This time she did roll her eyes.

"Well, there was a couple of people slightly worried about the end of the world, a couple of huge monsters walking around killing things, and a genocidal psychopath wandering round doing likewise. Oh, and President Shinra, Hojo, Heidegger and Scarlet died, and Shinra fell from power."

"...I meant locally, that I wouldn't have heard about."

"Hmm...Let me see...massive upsurge in gang violence-"

"-triggered by me shooting the Don?"

"Initially, yes, but you couldn't have triggered anything on this scale. The power struggle after the Don left was bloody, but it was resolved pretty quickly. This happened later. Civilians dying all over the place, really bloody war. They all went to ground just before Meteorfall though, it's quiet enough now."

Silence again.

A few minutes passed. They moved out into more respectable districts in the suburbs.

Then Ree spoke again.

"So, what are you going to do n- No, I won't ask."

"You can ask. Reason being, I don't have a fucking clue. Maybe North Cave. With Sephiroth gone, it's slightly less dangerous, but it'll be a brave assassin that comes to get me." Hopefully, she'd tell Shinra that he'd said North Cave, but she didn't believe it. And Rufus would hopefully think she was trying to protect him and send his assassins to the cave, where, they'd probably die. "And you can tell the Shinra that."

"Don't worry, I will" she told him, smiling.

"So that's what you were sent to find out?"

"They thought you'd be slightly less likely to shoot me than anyone else. Sorry."

"I suppose I could move in with you. Nobody'd expect _that._"

"Uh...no, you couldn't. I'm attached to that house." Any other reaction would've been just weird.

"Well, you'd make a fortune on the insurance when it got burned down."

"_When_ it burned down?"

"Well, you saw what happened to mine, right?"

"It didn't get burned to the ground. Yeah it's gutted, but it's not burned to ash. The fire was quenched in time, and a Shinra salvage team auctioned off all your stuff, but it wasn't burnt _to the ground."_

"Anything good?"

"Furniture. I hear Kotch bought the skewer you impaled his rivals on."

"Good for him. May he use it justly in the wanton slaughter of all his underlings. Is my house habitable, even if it is gutted?"

"Thinking of moving back in?"

"I might go back to collect some stuff." _Or leave a grenade!_

"I wouldn't recommend it." And he could tell she meant that in more than one way. Still, it was good to leave a few false trails to keep the assassins guessing until he was more capable of battle. Whether she believed them or not, some might. But now they'd reached a more peaceful area of the city.

"Ree?"

"Mmm?"

_Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam. Blam._

"Not quite the reunion I was hoping for, but I can't say I'm surprised..."

_Days later..._

Having bought a cruiser in Junon (for no other reason than he could) and commissioned it to head to Costa del Sol, he was now planning to travel around laying as many false trails as he could all over the continent. Unfortunately, he'd underestimated the amount of tourists that would be at the resort-people who hadn't expected to live beyond Meteorfall were now celebrating their unexpected longevity. As well as that, organizations like Shinra that had had their employees working overtime in the runup and aftermath of Meteorfall, now were forced to let their employees have holidays or face mutiny as things calmed down, leaving every holiday destination on the planet inundated. Good for the tourist trade, but not great for Evan, who having refused to take off his armour for paranoia reasons, was forced to stay in the air conditioned Inn, or be baked alive outside. While he no longer needed crutches to travel, he didn't feel quite up to fighting the more powerful monsters on this continent yet, so he couldn't leave yet. Costa del Sol was more or less the only deepwater port on the continent, so he couldn't use his ship to just land somewhere else. So he spent a lot of time playing snooker and/or pool in the Inn keeping his mask on at all times.

This particularly day found him playing a challenge match with a particular gentlemen with whom he was more or less evenly matched. Unfortunately, the Inn had thin walls, so you could hear what was going on the rooms (and vice versa). After a decent break, Evan was lining up for his third shot when the voices within came to his attention.

"Hard to know what to do now, isn't it?" The voice was familiar, but this didn't immediately register.

"Yeah...everyone else's gone home. I think they left us alone on purpose."

A pause.

"...so what now?"

"I don't know. I've nowhere to go."

"You've friends in Midgar, right?"

"After Sector Seven? Probably not. They blame us for what happened. Those who survived, anyway."

Evan scuffed his shot, bouncing off the cushion a good three inches from the pocket. Luckily, he'd accidentally snookered his opponent, who circled the table, searching for a reasonable shot.

_Relax, AVALANCHE don't know you. You'll just attract notice by leaving now._

Cloud and Tifa –it was them, of course, typically of his luck- kept talking.

"You don't get too close to people by serving drinks, anyway. The only person who even tried was Don Corneo."

"What? What happened?"

"I explained that I was making enough money, I didn't need to join the HBI. The next night, he tried to burn me to the ground."

_This's interesting..._

His opponent wasn't taking his shot, now instead listening with interest to the conversation in the next room.

"It didn't work, of course, but after that everyone was too afraid to come near me. My customers stayed for the service, but not to chat. What about you?"

"Me? Well, after Nibelheim, I spent the next five years in a lab, where the only people who took the slightest interest in me was Hojo and one lab assistant who checked her reflection in my Mako tank every morning."

"What about Shinra? Did you know any people well?"

"Not anyone who'd care about me now. It's...weird, having my memories back. I...don't really know what to do with them yet. I'm not sure what I can trust. The Jenova memories are still there...it's confusing, I'm never certain which of my memories actually happened." Understandably, the other man now looked confused. Evan was slightly better informed through Reeve's dialogue files, though.

"Does it matter? You don't have to know them, you just have to know that they exist, that _you_ exist. You can sort out the details later."

"...Thank you, Tifa. I needed to hear that."

"You're welcome."

"It's hard to know what to do with myself now. Everything up to now was geared towards Sephiroth and Meteor. Now...I don't know what to do. You're going to open another bar, right?"

"...Probably. I'm not really ready to think about that yet. I lost everything when the pillar came down, it'll be a while before I can do anything at all."

"Sorry, I never thought about that. So you were left with..."

"My barmaid armour, the dress I wore to the Corneos that day, and my gloves. And it's _not _fun walking around the great glacier dressed like this, believe me."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"What could you do? Barret wasn't dressed any better than me, and you only had that one purple suit. That's why I had to keep jumping around."

"That purple suit had a heater in it. Most Shinra armour does. I collapsed after the engine froze."

Tifa didn't reply, apparently in shock.

"Sorry."

" Y- You- We were seriously considering skinning Red XIII and you had a _heater_ in your suit!"

Behind the wall, Evan smiled, and his former opponent stifled a full throated laugh. Other people's suffering always made good comedy. Sad but true. Cloud had the good grace to feel guilty, and Tifa eventually calmed down, by which time the two men had completely abandoned their game and were listening intently. Cloud, eager to change the subject, picked up on something she'd said earlier.

"Did you say barmaid armour?"

"...Yeah. It's the law in Midgar. Have you ever been in a pub where everyone goes armed? You need to be armoured. Drunk people shoot very erratically, but they mightn't necessarily be aiming at you. Full armour looks weird, so the Shinra issued what I'm wearing. The breastplate can take bullets. It was the best armour I had, so I took it to the reactor. And I wore it under that dress to Corneo manor, because I was walking into a building full of thugs with shotguns and a grudge against me."

"Breastplate?"

"Disappointed, Cloud?" Tifa asked, sounding suddenly amused, "Yes, this is a breastplate, and I can't _wait_ to wear something else. It's really annoying, makes you look ridiculously full figured, and not even very convincingly."

"I wouldn't know."

"What?"

"I wouldn't know the difference. Zack convinced me to apply for a HBI membership card, but it was still being processed when I was sent to Nibelheim with Sephiroth."

There was a long pause. Then Tifa spoke, at first hesitantly, then in a rush.

"Would you...like to find out?"

"...I..." Another long pause. A couple of snaps, as clasps being opened. Rustle. Rustle rustle. More snaps. Evan, who was familiar with armour suits, thought that it'd probably be at least a few minutes before they were able to remove it. Even with somebody squiring you, anything thicker than MP armour took time to place or remove. Evan lost interest. He didn't particularly care to hear what happened from then on, partly because of said knowledge about armour, partly because he knew any of the interesting talking was probably finished, and partly because talk of the HBI reminded him of his predicament. The other man was still listening intently, so Evan took the cue from his hands and tried a trick shot, failing. The noise from the other room was briefly silenced by the clack of the balls, and the man he had been playing against hissed at him disapprovingly. There was a pause, then voices rose again, presumably as Tifa finally slid free of her armour, but maybe not.

"The Don was right." Cloud said softly.

"Oh, come on. The armour sold me. You had six guys chasing you, you were a prettier girl than I could ever be!"

Evan laughed. He couldn't help it, but at least he did so quietly. The other man had no such discretion, and positively _brayed_ laughter, the fucking idiot. The voices in the other room were silenced instantly, and then fast, quick steps were heard before Cloud emerged at the top of the stairs, sword in hand.

Evan could have been gone. Even with the limp, he could have been out the door and gone before Cloud could cut them off. But, for once, his training betrayed him, as he lost a precious second automatically rising to draw his machine gun...which was hanging on a hook behind him, because it got in the way during matches. He still had his sidearm, but he knew how much damage small caliber weapons did to Cloud Strife. The man he'd been playing against drew two handguns and fired, but of course Cloud blocked them on his blade and kept coming, cutting his attacker in half in a fountain of blood. In the instant where Cloud stumbled over the body, Evan lunged wildly with the cue he was holding. It shouldn't have connected, Cloud had time to cut him in half well before it landed, but somehow it did. The heavy cue snapped, and the impact knocked Strife right through the thin plaster wall between the lounge and the rooms. Instantly Evan was running, but the flat of the sword swept his legs from under him before he got far. Rolling over, he just had time to glimpse the inverted orange cone of light, and then Cloud was on him, striking with speed that could, and had, made Sephiroth feel embarrassed. The suit of armour made from Weapon Scales, up to then having stood up to everything he'd done to it, began to splinter and crack, driving razor sharp broken shards into his body. Blood started running out through the widening gaps as the sheer force of the impacts dashed the armour to pieces. And the strikes kept coming.

Cloud wasn't angry because of what the men had overheard, or that he'd lost the chance to see his not-quite-girlfriend minus her armour. Evan understood that. He was angry because he'd lost the moment, one of the rare moments that they could talk freely to each other. Both reticent people, Cloud and Tifa had opened up to each other three times in their life. First, in the Lifestream, with his mind in tatters, when they'd had to be honest so he could heal. Second, beneath the Highwind, when they'd unconsciously known it might be their last chance. And now, in Costa del Sol, they'd almost had one of those moments, and two eavesdroppers had ruined it. Whether he was aware of it consciously or not, Cloud knew that it might be years before there was another of those moments, and he felt the loss keenly. So he kept striking out until the Omnislash's strength left him, furious at his lost opportunity.

Finally, the impacts stopped coming, and Evan opened his eyes. He was finding it difficult to focus them. The left one was filled with blood, and his back was a searing well of agony. Shards of his armour had been driven almost completely through his body, and he was aware of the sickening drowning sensation that accompanied at least one punctured lung. His wrist had broken again, and probably a few ribs as well. He didn't dare reach up to his skull. In spite of his every instinct screaming at him to stay down, he slowly rose to his hands and knees, and then knees. He tried to stand upright and failed. Then he saw Cloud.

Cloud was leaning against the snooker table, staring at his sword-or what was left of it. Three inches below the hilt, the blade ended in a jagged stump. At some point during the vicious beating, he'd hit Evan hard enough to shatter the steel blade like glass. Cloud was bleeding now too-some of the shards had rebounded on him- but they were minor wounds, and he was probably still deadly. Looking up, he saw Evan staring blankly at him and stood up in a hurry, standing between him and Tifa, who was visible through the hole in the wall, struggling with her armour. Evan laughed bitterly. He was now between Cloud and the door, but he didn't have the energy to run. So he might as well talk.

"Trust me, Strife, she's in much more danger from you than me." He paused to cough. Blood, of course.

"Why do you say that?" Strife asked, angry and disbelieving.

"Well, you repeatedly tried to kill Aeris. If you hadn't been stopped, you would have. What's different now?"

"How do you know that?" Strife asked sharply. No denial. Interesting.

"I worked with...Reeve. I know...almost everything."

"Then you know that Sephiroth forced me to do that, and I put my mind back together. I'm...safe...now."

"Why do you think that? Sephiroth fucked you up enough to give him the black Materia _by choice._ But before that, before you knew about that, he was able to _compel_ you to try to kill Aeris and give him the black materia. There, nothing's changed. He didn't use it in the final battle because he didn't think he had to, but now that he's back floating around the Lifestream, don't you think he'll try get revenge? Just to cause you pain? One day when the bar's closed, he'll make you cut her throat when she's not ready for it. And then...you'll wake up, and realize what you've done. Can you live with killing both your girls? With your own hands?" Evan wasn't sure if any of that was true, but he didn't see why Cloud should get a happy ending when he, Evan, couldn't. The man who'd cost the world tens of thousands of lives by _handing _Sephiroth the Black Materia freely, _by choice_, thus freeing the Weapons and responsible for all the lives they cost? Who then tried to impede Shinra from stopping the Meteor with a Rocket _for no reason?_ Why should he get a happy ending? What gave him the right? Evan had murdered one mob boss who had tried to kill him, and his life had been destroyed. And Cloud? Valentine had sealed himself into a coffin for a much lesser sin. Should Cloud's just be forgotten? Evan was angrier than he thought he'd ever been. Sheer rage brought him to his feet.

"You think _you've _suffered, Strife, because you lost your village? I was a Guard at Sector 1. station. You probably don't remember me. So many killing sprees, so little time, huh? Almost everyone I knew was in that garrison! When it blew, everyone on duty was wiped out! Everyone I knew, gone! Instantly! The survivors, those off duty, were hit when you stormed Rocket Town Reactor. And there's always the Weapons. Do you know how many people I knew well are still alive, Cloud? Guess, why don't you? And you, _you _lost one girl you met a month and a half ago, who you previously tried to kill yourself! And look at you, happy and enjoying life, ready to find your feet post Meteor! Have you ever stopped to consider how much blood is on your hands, Strife? Do you ever think about that?"

"Every! Single! Day!" Cloud shrieked back, now himself angry beyond belief. That had touched a nerve.

"You think I'm enjoying what's happening now? You think I'm having _fun?_ I didn't go fight Sephiroth through heroics. I had to redeem myself for what I'd done! I was terrified going into that crater! I was hoping he would kill me!" Tifa glanced at him in shock. "And no, I didn't do it for the fun or the glory! I'm not going to proclaim it from the rooftops! I just want to be left alone! And in case you've forgotten, my village was massacred when Sephiroth went psychotic!"

"Oh, your village? And you obviously really cared about that, didn't you? So much that you bravely played dead and waited for your mother, your best friend, and your girl to get stabbed before you did anything!"

Cloud's restraint broke-he rammed the hilt shard of his sword into Evan's chest, sinking through the Weapon armour easily, deep enough to stick. More blood ran out around the wound, and Evan felt more ribs snap.

"Take it from me, Strife," Evan whispered, no longer having enough breath to speak louder, "The best thing you could ever do now is to move as far as you can from anyone you know. Don't answer the phone. Throw it away. Get the fuck away from anyone you care about before you cost them, and then they start to hate you." He hit his knees again, and had just enough presence of mind to fall backwards instead of forwards to stop his weight driving the sword deeper into him.

* * *

_Author's notes: I'm not sure how in character the conversations were.__ I think Ree wouldn't have been nearly as chatty so soon, but I hadn't the patience to draw out the dialogue. It's hard not to write her as just something for Evan to look at. I'm not sure how much I succeeded in not doing that. Cloud and Tifa, same thing, I don't think they'd be quite that open, but that was the best I could do. I'd have preferred not to have included that flashback, it was pretty pointless, but I'd already mentioned that they met in a shower back in chapter three, so I thought I'd better clarify that and make it sound less like that scene from Starship Troopers. _

_P.S. Please read and review._


	34. Reunion

**Reunion**

Evan woke up, which was a not entirely pleasant surprise. He didn't open his eyes, partly because he wanted to assess where he was first and partly because they were glued shut. Okay...lying on something soft-mattress? Not Mako tank or Lifestream, ergo, he was alive. In quite a lot of pain, as was to be expected after being impaled, but apparently alive. _Very_ comfortable mattress. No real sounds anywhere near him. No other breathing, no metal on metal. Clock ticking somewhere beneath him, on a lower floor. Wind audible outside-must be a window in the room. He didn't move for several minutes, but after hearing no signs of life in that time, risked opening his eyes. He didn't succeed in doing this for some time, but when he did, he beheld a bedroom, not very interesting but very familiar. Bedside table, lamp, wardrobe set into one wall. His Shinra .17 was beside the lamp, within easy reach had he full control of his body. His armour had been removed, but his actual clothes hadn't been changed. There were drip scars in his arms, but not one in the room. So...he was expected to wake up soon. But no welcoming committee, no bedside vigil? Trusting.

He spent the next several hours flexing and stretching his various muscles, getting them back under his control, before hearing a door open downstairs. An assassin would hardly use the main door, but he picked up the handgun anyway as the steps neared his door. Somebody knocked. A brief but frantic inward debate occurred, then Evan said "Yes?"

"If I come in, are you going to shoot me?" _Ree? _

"That's up to you."

"So..."

"If you don't try to kill me, you're probably okay."

She opened the door, in a crouch so as to be out of his direct line of fire.

"How are you feeling?"

"Like I've been hit by a train."

"Uh, yeah, sorry about that. The ambulance crashed."

"What?"

"Nothing. Em...would you mind putting down the gun? Or at least point it somewhere else? I'll keep my distance, don't worry."

"...Okay. How did I end up here? And how'd I survive?"

"Well, you may have noticed you're an assassination risk, right? You now have one of the most recognisable faces in the world. One of the advantages of being a Shinra President. Once whoever attacked you left, you got top quality care -flown straight to Junon. And you managed to avoid any instantly fatal wounds, even if you left three litres of blood behind you. But...you had over a million gil price on your head. The Intensive care unit wanted to get you the hell out from their care before somebody blew up the hospital. By then, I'd heard about what happened –the W.R.O. smothered the story, but it leaked out in certain circles- so when I stopped in, they gave you to me. I didn't want you-no offense-, but it was either me or push you out onto the street, and since you clearly weren't travelworthy... And I think that covers it."

"And nobody's come here to kill me?"

"I put some effort into covering my tracks-like I said, I'm attached to this house."

There was silence for a while.

"Back in a minute." Under his watchful eye, she carefully got some clothes out of the wardrobe and left, clearly thinking that the fact that she'd come in wearing the Turk uniform wasn't increasing her odds of survival

Evan sighed. This was complicated. Why had he survived? And how had he lived long enough to wake up? Why had Ree brought him? Yeah, she'd explained, but that didn't seem justification for bringing a guy with a high price on his head home. What was going on? Who knew he was here? Why didn't they want him dead? Ree was nervous, that he could see, keeping her hands in view as much as possible. She thought he might kill her. A reasonable view given how they'd last parted, but...why bring him home? There was no advantage in it, and a lot of danger. But...she clearly didn't want him dead, or he wouldn't have woken up.

The revelation was stunning. He'd been helpless, unconscious, and under her care, and _she hadn't killed him! _Most of the surviving Shinra hierarchy _definitely_ wanted him dead, along with about half the population of the planet, but she hadn't killed him. He wasn't entirely sure why, but if she hadn't killed him then, she wasn't about to now. She wasn't a showboater, if she wanted him dead he would be. So...that probably meant he could trust her, even if he wasn't sure why.

Ever since the price on his head hit a hundred grand, he'd divided the world into three types of people. People who didn't want to kill him until he outlasted his usefulness, people who didn't kill him because they were afraid of the consequences of trying, and people who did everything in their power to get his head on a spike. He couldn't have fought back, and there was no one to avenge him. Nobody cared if he died anymore. So...she didn't fit into anything. What was he going to do?

When she came back, Evan had looked around the room a bit more, noticing a few extra details.

"What's that?" He indicated a pile of parcels at the foot of the bed

"They came when you were in the Intensive Care unit. I don't recommend opening them. About one in three was a bomb, and a couple might have slipped past the metal detector."

"You have any Antidotes?" Some of the parcels were bottles, and it'd been a long time since he'd felt safe enough to get drunk.

She left again. These days, it was his custom to drink an Antidote after every meal. Could he trust what she gave him? She wouldn't have let him wake up to poison him now, and any assassin able to get as far as her fridge would just have come upstairs and cut his throat. It was odd, after all that had happened recently, to be able to put unconditional trust in somebody.

She came back with the bottles.

"So who sent the non-bomb presents?"

"You actually have supporters in the grassroots of the company-you kept a lot of people alive. Unfortunately, more people want you dead."

"So...people knew I was in the Care Ward?"

"Under high security, yes."

"So they could have tracked me here?" Maybe he'd leave the bottles alone for now.

"Maybe."

"How soon am I travelworthy?"

"Another couple of weeks. If you don't let your wrist heal properly this time, it's fucked for good."

"Who paid for the care?"

"Rufus. He wants to be seen to pay his debts." _Ah, public opinion. So useful._

"So _that's _why you brought me home."

"If I said it was because I was hopelessly in love, would you believe me?"

"No. Sorry, hon. I know you."

"..."

"How long have I been here?"

"Three weeks since you were attacked, two days since you've been here."

"And C- whoever attacked me got away?"

"Yep. Forensically, someone cleaned up. Circumstantial evidence, but Commissioner Reeve looks after his friends." _She knows._

"You're well informed."

"I told you, it leaked out in certain circles. Come here, I want to show you something."

She walked out of the room. He followed, slightly unsteadily, but on high alert for some trick, and found her at a computer in the room next door. When it loaded, she brought up the page where the assassination industry did its advertising. Next to the name E. Shinra, a price of 3.2 million gil was displayed-the minimum price they'd take a contract on him for-now the highest individual price in the world.

"You allegedly fought off the most dangerous living man in the world," Ree told him, "AVALANCHE members are a million each, only because nobody has ever taken out a contract on them. But you caused the business a high body count as well, so your price..."

"I never thought I'd be happy to be impaled." There were smaller independent assassination companies as well, but this one was the biggest, best, and most trusted. Now, his price was out of reach of all but a few of the people who wanted him dead.

And of those, in the chaos after Meteorfall, they wouldn't spend that much unless he was actually a direct threat. Now he was no longer Shinra President, he wasn't threatening anyone, and he'd mostly just killed the assassins that came, when they came. If his enemies left him alone, he would do likewise. So they couldn't afford to waste that much money on him out of principle or on a whim. They could still hire random thugs to ambush him –there was no shortage of these- but they couldn't be as thorough as the professionals, and if he was careful, sooner of later a clue would lead back to the clients.

And then, with his connections and wealth...

"Don't count chickens; you've a long way to go."

"Don't I know it."

He looked up at her. Somebody who seemed inexplicably trustworthy. A rare trait nowadays, that. Too valuable to waste.

"Does this seem...oddly convenient, to you? Neat, y'know, like a story?"

"Oh yeah, it'd be a real fairy tale if it wasn't for the tens of thousands of corpses it took to get here. As far as I know, there's only five survivors left who knew you before the No. 1 reactor blew."

"Happy endings."

"Yeah."

"We survived."

"Yeah."

He left three weeks later. She didn't see him again for a long time.

* * *

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_And that's that, folks. Thanks to everyone who read over the last two__ years. All my reviewers, especially SirMIDNIGHT, who wrote over half of them. There might be a sequel to this, but it won't be written for a while. Thanks to anyone who read to the end of the 30+ chapters. A bit of an abrupt ending, I know._


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